


A Learning Experience

by JJBlue1



Category: Joker Game (Anime)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Notes at the end to explain the tons of stuffs I researched for this fic, References to D no Maou, References to the novel version
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2018-09-18 21:52:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 49,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9404537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JJBlue1/pseuds/JJBlue1
Summary: There's always something you can learn from others.





	1. Chapter 1

The scent of Fukumoto’s cooking welcomed them in the cafeteria while they were still in mid discussion. After a year they’d been living there, it felt almost like the scent of home.

Miyoshi saw that Sakuma-san, Fukumoto’s cooking biggest estimator among them, was already seated. There would be no fun in teasing him on how poorly tasteful military lunch normally was. Sakuma-san, as the hopelessly honest guy he was, wouldn’t hesitate to agree… though he would also catch his chance to point out that an Army canteen wasn’t supposed to serve the same kind of food than a restaurant would.

Miyoshi had learnt from experience insisting would lead nowhere. Sakuma-san was happy with admitting that the Army food was of low quality but also seemed stubbornly persuaded it was fine that way so Miyoshi contented himself with looking forward to the day that someone in the Army would get poisoned or infected with some nasty disease to rub in his face that no, it wasn’t fine that way.

Unluckily so far, either the Army had successfully covered up any incident tied with the food, or no incident worth of note had happened. Or maybe career soldiers ended up developing immunity to food poisoning.

Oh well, patience was a virtue and Miyoshi still remembered with horror the food that had been served to him during his time of obligatory conscription. He was sure one day someone would die for it, it was just a matter of waiting, he decided as he sat down on Sakuma-san’s left. Kaminaga sighed, likely mentally complaining for Miyoshi’s choice of seating arrangement, then went to sit next to him and resumed the conversation. The last place at their four people table was taken by Odagiri while the others were already seated to a different one.

The conversation between Miyoshi and Kaminaga resumed.

They weren’t in the habit of discussing things around the table at lunchtime… and especially in front of Sakuma-san if it wasn’t strictly necessary, but Yūki-san wasn’t there and Kaminaga feels like showing off what he had figured out and Miyoshi could see he seemed to have done a good work.

Besides Sakuma-san usually didn’t let himself be involved in their discussion. As long as they weren’t saying anything that was against his militaristic sense of moral, he had taken the habit of letting them say whatever they please and do not try to join in their conversation.

Miyoshi acknowledged that the man was deliberately cutting himself out of their group… and that maybe they were also to blame for this, as they had, here and there, purposely gone out of their ways to anger him. But well, they had very different views on many matters and Sakuma-san hadn’t been exactly that easy to get along with to put it extremely mildly.

Making fun of him and his world view had simply seemed an interesting way to pass time and it could have been a learning experience for him… not that he seemed to appreciate it considering how badly he usually reacted.

In the end, fundamentally, there had been lack of understanding from both sides and general irritation at the other party so they all were to blame for that situation. However, Miyoshi acknowledged, there was a thing none of them, not even him, had understood about the man that had been assigned as their liaison at first.

Sakuma-san wasn’t like many other Army officers who bragged about honour and stuff and then would be the first to do everything to back out from an unfavourable situation. Whatever Sakuma-san preached, even the most annoying and idiotic thing, that was something Sakuma-san believed and he would always follow his beliefs, even if this would be counterproductive for him.

Still, regardless of what Yūki-san seemed to hope, Miyoshi was pretty sure Sakuma-san was no spy material. However, now that he had seen that there wasn’t an ounce of deception in the man, he was more prone to feel a sort of fond exasperation for Sakuma-san’s stubbornness in clinging to those idiotic ideas than the annoyance he’d felt previously.

Oh, he knew they wouldn’t become friends, those weren’t something a spy needed to have, but he had started to believe they could have a decent relation with mutual profit. That and Sakuma-san was definitely aesthetically pleasant to watch when he wasn’t sprouting nonsense, which was why, although listening to Kaminaga, Miyoshi was also taking care to casually glance in his direction which lead him to catch Sakuma-san frowning at Kaminaga’s words. The man didn’t comment though, he just looked as if he believed Kaminaga had said something that made no sense to him. Odd. Recently Sakuma-san did his best not to pay their discussion any attention but this time it seemed he was listening to it?

“What’s wrong, Sakuma-san? Don’t you like Kaminaga’s theory?” he found himself asking, interrupting Kaminaga in mid conversation and causing him to turn his gaze on Sakuma-san as well. Sakuma-san looked at him, apparently surprised by his question, then shrugged.

“It can work,” he commented grudgingly before resuming to eat, deliberately dismissing the whole matter even if his words were a clear admission he had been listening in their conversation. Kaminaga frowned. Although Sakuma-san hadn’t really said something against it, he could now sense the man wasn’t agreeing with him and wasn’t thrilled with it.

“What do you mean? Can you think of something better?” he challenged which was probably the wrong tone to use as Sakuma-san was higher than them in ranking and very aware of it.

“Kaminaga,” Odagiri said in warning.

“I mean what I’ve said, that _‘it can work’_ ,” Sakuma-san stated coldly without clarifying further and without sparing Kaminaga a second glance as if he considered the whole discussion close. Of course this wouldn’t sit well with Kaminaga.

“You aren’t getting off of this so easily. You said it like you can think at something better. I say I want to know what’s that something better you’re thinking of.”

“And I say you’re imagining things and, if I were you, I’ll think twice before trying to imply I’m a liar.”

Silence fell around them as curious eyes turned on them with expressions of mild interest to see if the argument would develop from a staring contest into a full scale fight.

“All right,” Miyoshi interjected, defusing the situation. “You don’t have a better theory, Sakuma-san, I believe you. You don’t like Kaminaga’s though and I doubt it’s just because you personally don’t like Kaminaga so why?” he asked making sure to sound just curious and not challenging.

“I didn’t express opinions on Kaminaga’s theory at all,” Sakuma-san protested which was… pretty naïve really. Did he really believe he needed to hear Sakuma-san voicing his thoughts when Miyoshi could read them easily all written on his face? Apparently that was the case.

“You didn’t. You’re just rather transparent, Sakuma-san. You were looking displeased as if Kaminaga said something stupid. Or are you going to tell me you were actually displeased with Fukumoto’s food?” Miyoshi clarified patiently. Fukumoto looked rather interested at this as he always took special care to prepare it the best he could.

“No,” Sakuma-san replied. “Fukumoto’s lunch is delicious as usual.” He sounded wary. Evidently he hadn’t been out to have a discussion with them and didn’t appreciate Miyoshi involving him in one. He sighed. “And I’m not _‘displeased’_ with Kaminaga’s theory. I’m just not getting part of it.”

“Unsurprising,” Kaminaga commented in a low tone, turning his gaze away in annoyance. Sakuma-san glared at him.

“Oh? Which one?” Miyoshi pressed, forcing Sakuma-san to return his attention on him. The man seemed to study him, as if to decide if it was worth it to speak his mind then…

“Why didn’t the Major try to defend himself?”

“He likely didn’t make it in time,” Kaminaga stated in a dismissing tone. “It happened quickly. He had no time to pull out his gun as well and from what we know it’s not like he was as good and fast as Hatano in self defence.”

“The Major had a Katana, though. He was close enough he could have used that. And since he was good enough with it, it could have worked.”

“His opponent had a gun. He would still have been faster,” Miyoshi replied, anticipating Kaminaga. “People in the Army love too much their Katana so they tend to forget they’re only a leftover of the past.”

“If we love them so much as you say it makes even less sense he hadn’t at least tried to use it. He had a decent chance at succeeding. He should have gone for it.”

“He wouldn’t have made it and he probably didn’t have the time to even let the idea to use his Katana dawn on him,” Miyoshi insisted in a dismissing tone. If this was Sakuma-san’s only problem it wasn’t worth his time. Sakuma-san however wasn’t going to let the thing be now.

“He was a trained swordsman, of course with a Katana at his disposition it would have dawn on him to use it to defend himself.”

“Well, if he was so good with his Katana as you claim, which I doubt, then he would have realized he wouldn’t have made in time anyway so no point in trying to pull it out.” Now Miyoshi was annoyed. One matter was to think Kaminaga’s ideas were stupid, which here and there were, and another was to try and imply his own were. That old Army guy who hadn’t even been good enough to rise in rank beyond Major wouldn’t have managed to accomplish anything with his rusty Katana. Miyoshi had seen how Army soldiers used their Katana. It was nothing special. “Forget the Katana. Actually it’s extremely stupid the Japanese Army still cling to them when they’re just a decorative and useless annoyance, a leftover of times that won’t come back.”

Kaminaga would have liked to agree but he didn’t have the time as Sakuma-san stood abruptly.

“Fine. Let’s test this theory of yours. Let’s see if a man with a gun at that distance can beat an Imperial soldier with a Katana.”

Miyoshi blinked at the unexpected challenge then grinned.

“Sakuma-san, I’ll have you know I’m pretty fast with guns.” His statement didn’t get the reaction he expected as Sakuma-san grinned back.

“Good. It’ll make things interesting.”

Well, Miyoshi thought as he stood as well, this was intriguing. He doubted Sakuma-san could have a chance but this was the first time he got such reaction from him. Testing Sakuma-san’s sword skills might prove fun.

Odagiri sighed. He wasn’t sure this would have a nice development.

Kaminaga felt cut out. Somehow Sakuma-san and Miyoshi had hijacked the discussion and were acting like he wasn’t even here. Well, as if each of them wasn’t even here. He saw Sakuma-san and Miyoshi leaving the cafeteria without paying to them or to what remained of their food any further attention.

“Sakuma-san is going to lose. Again. He’ll never learn, does he?” he commented.

“50.00 yen on Sakuma-san beating Miyoshi,” Odagiri stated, standing up and evidently planning to follow Sakuma-san and Miyoshi.

“Hey, it’s more than half that our monthly pay!” Amari observed. They got a little more than 70.00 yen each month. Betting 50.00 was really quite risky. However it was unexpected Odagiri would speak up or start a bet and this made it intriguing. Risky as well but… intriguing.

“Odagiri. Are you sure?” Fukumoto asked him and got a sharp nod in reply.

“I’m in,” Kaminaga agreed anyway, following Odagiri. Maybe Odagiri knew something they didn’t know about military sword fighting as he was always more knowledgeable than them in Army related matters, but this shouldn’t change things. Miyoshi was fast with guns and Kaminaga’s theory was solid. There was no way he was going to lose.

* * *

The duel, if so could be called, was supposed to involve a water gun and a Bokuto, a wooden sword shaped like a Katana, since nobody was supposed to end up shoot or cut for real, and it made Kaminaga think of two children who were bitching… which, to be honest, was how often Sakuma-san and Miyoshi looked when they ended up arguing.

Kaminaga would have liked to claim those arguments were mostly Sakuma-san’s fault but, truth to be told, Miyoshi seemed to enjoy a lot to annoy the man and now he looked thrilled at the idea of spraying him with water, like a little kid who were about to get the chance to annoy the girl he liked. Yeah, exactly like that, Kaminaga though, sighing.

On the other side Sakuma-san also seemed to be in a good mood for once as he cast aside the jacket of his suit and, after bowing to it as if this could effect it in any way, tried if the Bokuto would slid smoothly in and out of its Saya, before fastening it at his side, looking even more soldier-like than usual. It reminded Kaminaga of when they posed as Military Police, only back then Sakuma-san had been in a bad mood. Now, he looked way more comfortable with the situation he was in. Yūki-san would have probably fined him for acting in a way that gave away so easily how he was actually a soldier but well, Yūki-san wasn’t there to see what they were making.

“Get yourself a Kendōgu or some other sort of protective armour if you don’t want to get hurt,” Sakuma-san warned Miyoshi. “Besides, are you sure you’re okay with a toy gun?”

“Don’t worry about me, Sakuma-san, worry about your shirt. There’s ink in this one. Still sure you can be faster than me?” Miyoshi shoot back confidently. Nasty, Kaminaga though, they all knew Sakuma-san didn’t exactly have many spare suits.

“Only one way to find out. Is this distance right?” the man asked to Kaminaga placing himself in front of Miyoshi. He seemed confident enough.

“Yeah, that’s how far I think they were,” he agreed.

“Then, when you’re ready,” Sakuma-san said simply to Miyoshi.

It was going to be fun, Miyoshi thought as he stared at the man in front of him. Way better than the time they had tricked him into joining in the Joker Game. Miyoshi was going to make a point about the whole stupidity of certain Army customs and, this time, Sakuma-san would have no chance to hide behind _‘he had no idea this is the game that was being played’_. Miyoshi was going to win. Miyoshi…

The hit came so quickly his brain didn’t even had the time to register the pain as the toy gun was sent flying away from his grasp. The next he knew was that Sakuma-san had grabbed his shoulder, holding him still and was pressing the tip of his Bokuto against Miyoshi’s stomach. If that had been a real Katana and not just a sword made of wood, Sakuma-san would have had cut his arm out and then he could have easily pushed it through his stomach, effectively killing him.

Miyoshi felt like kicking himself as he realized he miscalculated how fast Sakuma-san could be but well, apart from the Harakiri thing, he never really saw him using a Katana so… He eyed the man. He also didn’t think he’d ever been so up close to him before. He would have preferred if the situation were to be different though.

“So tell me, do you think the Major’s attacker was faster than you?” he was asked. “Because that’s what he would have needed to be for this to work.” Miyoshi felt like frowning but he could control himself.

“Unlikely,” he admitted.

“Not everyone in the Army has poor Kenjutsu knowledge. Do not mistake the little you saw during your conscription time for the sum of the whole Army’s ability. You’re part of the Army as well after all,” the man stated before pulling back and letting him go.

“And so here goes Miyoshi’s reputation as the faster with the guns,” Kaminaga commented, snickering, which gained him a rather dark glare from Miyoshi that promised painful retribution.

Hatano clapped, as if amused by the whole matter and Sakuma-san gave him a wary look, knowing how nasty he could be with words. Today though, that wasn’t what Hatano had in mind.

“That was a nice show, Sakuma-san, though that’s not the Army’s Toyama-ryū’s style,” he merely observed, his gaze intent, as Sakuma-san, smoothly performed the Chiburi movement they all had been taught, but after it, made the Bokuto spin with the careless motion of one used to do it over and over before sheathing it back with the same smoothness and ease one uses when he does some as simple as breathing. “You didn’t tell us you were that good.”

“I’m not _‘that’_ good. The Major was supposed to be, though. Family of Samurai. Took part to competitions and everything. Say what you want but he should have at least tried to draw his Katana.”

“Well, I’ve lost so you’ve made your point. The Major could have defended himself. Kaminaga. Think of something else or fix this hole in your theory,” Miyoshi said in a casual tone, through the defeat burned… and the point where Sakuma hit him burned even more. Well, at least the bone didn’t seem to be broken. He wondered if this meant Sakuma-san had actually hold back. Possibly. It was even more annoying, as if the man hadn’t judged him a threat big enough to go against him at full force.

“Get some ice on that or you’ll regret it,” Sakuma-san warned which pushed Miyoshi to resist to the idea. He didn’t feel like showing how bad it hurt.

“It’s no big deal,” he dismissed in a perfectly sincere tone, even though he knew it was an obvious lie, one even Sakuma-san’s could easily see though. Sakuma-san eyed him though, but didn’t insist.

“What’s going on, here?” Yūki-san’s voice interrupted the discussion and everyone mentally kicked himself as no one had heard him joining them. Which had to be expected, considering it was Yūki-san they were talking about but still…

“Sakuma-san and Miyoshi were testing a theory,” Kaminaga offered.

“Your theory. And it failed.” From the quick worsening in Miyoshi’s mood Kaminaga figured that Sakuma-san’s blow should have been a way bigger deal than Miyoshi let out.

“Sakuma-san is faster with a sword than Miyoshi with the gun,” Hatano had to supply, gaining a glare from Miyoshi. He didn’t like his failures being made public to Yūki-san, though, oddly enough, he wasn’t the only one who looked uncomfortable as Sakuma-san also didn’t seem to be pleased by what was going on.

“Unsurprisingly, considering he got against one of the best Kendōka of the Army,” Yūki-san commented simply.

“I’m not,” Sakuma-san countered sharply but Yūki-san ignored his denial as he went on speaking.

“I’ve heard you beat in speed someone who was much more distant than Miyoshi. Around the distance you and Kaminaga are now.”

“I’ve gotten lucky. Charging at someone with a gun and at that distance was stupid and immature of me and I wasn’t even supposed to be alone there. I should have remained with the others. That wasn’t the way a soldier of the imperial Army should behave.” The way Sakuma-san said it though, made Miyoshi think he was quoting someone else, more than reporting how he felt over the whole topic.

“That action saved your life. How were you expected to defend otherwise?” Yūki-san pressed.

Sakuma-san didn’t reply. His expression reminded Miyoshi of when the man had been ready to commit Harakiri despite knowing he’d been set up. Probably there was a story dealing with honour and orders and such behind the whole topic but Sakuma-san didn’t look like he felt prone to share it.

“Can it really be done? Kaminaga and Sakuma-san are definitely too distant for Sakuma-san to send a gun flying just by quickly drawing his sword out…” Tazaki wondered.

“As I said, I’ve gotten lucky. He just didn’t expect I would charge instead than step back,” Sakuma-san grumbled.

“Ne, Yūki-san, can’t Sakuma-san show it to us?” Jitsui asked him with an angelic smile. Sakuma-san didn’t seem to appreciate the request as his scowl deepened.

“Yes, let’s see it,” Amari joined. “I’m sure it’ll be interesting.”

“Well, it would be a learning experience for you all,” Yūki-san seemed to agree.

“Is that an order?” Sakuma-san asked then. It was clear he would obey if it were an order but he wouldn’t like it.

“It’s not. I’ll leave it up to you if to humour their request or not,” Yūki-san answered. Sakuma-san frowned as he stared at the man, as if trying to guess if he really meant he could refuse. Evidently he wasn’t used to be given the option to choose.

“Sakuma-san, do show us. Kaminaga volunteers to be the one holding the gun this time,” Miyoshi stated.

“Wait, I did nothing of the sort!” Kaminaga protested.

“I volunteered to try your theory out for you. The least you can do is to play guinea pig for this. Besides you’re fast and Sakuma-san is doubtful it’ll work. What are you scared of?”

Kaminaga glared, knowing Miyoshi was up on something nasty, then raised his hands in defeat. If Miyoshi was up on something nasty there was probably no way to avoid it. Better play along.

“Fine, fine, I’ll do it,” he agreed. “I’m a much better shooter than you, after all, and Sakuma-san said it himself, the first time it worked due to luck.”

“See, Sakuma-san? Now you even have a willing guinea pig to show us how it’s done,” Amari laughed. Sakuma-san didn’t. Somehow he came to a decision.

“I’m not interested. I’m out. Find someone else to watch to pass time,” he stated and moved to leave, ignoring how Hatano complained he was being a spoilsport. Miyoshi grabbed his arm, stopping him.

“I’ll bet 160.00 yen you can do it,” he promised. Hatano whistled.

“Careful, Miyoshi. If Sakuma-san refuses to show us anyway, you lose by default, you know this, don’t you?” Fukumoto warned him. Miyoshi looked unperturbed.

“I’m aware.”

“Are you out of mind then? That’s almost as much as both our monthly pays combined! Don’t expect me to help you shoulder your debt!” Sakuma’s monthly pay was higher than the one of the students, as he was higher in ranking compared to them, but still 160.00 yen would be too much for him as well. Miyoshi shrugged.

“I wasn’t expecting this. In the remote case I lose I can always pay my debts. You don’t have to worry on my account.”

Sakuma frowned and briefly wondered how much Miyoshi had saved but, before he could say something, Kaminaga spoke up.

“Well, even if the odds are in my favour, I’m not taking such a big bet. I own 50.00 yen already to Odagiri,” Kaminaga protested, though he was grinning. Evidently he wasn’t as scared to take such a bet as he wanted to look. He only wanted Miyoshi to raise the bet further.

“Fine. If I’ll lose I’ll pay up the 50.00 yen as well,” Miyoshi countered without turning his gaze away from Sakuma. He looked serious. But maybe he was just insane. Probably.

“We’ve a deal then!” Kaminaga agreed, sounding satisfied.

“Perfect. Sakuma-san, now that we’ve settled this matter, if you would…”

“No. I said I won’t play this game and I don’t plan to change my mind, Miyoshi,” Sakuma-san insisted stubbornly as he unlatched the Obi to which the Saya was tied, a clear hint he was done with playing Samurai. “And you said you could pay your debts.” He didn’t rip his arm free though, which, Miyoshi assumed, meant he could still be persuaded.

“It’s not really a game,” he corrected him. “As Yūki-san said it’s a learning experience. Don’t you want us to see how good military soldiers are with their swords?” It was the wrong thing to say somehow, as this time the man freed himself, looking annoyed.

“Learning experience? I’m aware it was luck, not ability what kept me alive that day and I don’t need a reminder. Go have fun with someone else,” he stated before motioning to leave. Miyoshi blinked then it clicked in.

“Wait. You don’t seriously think I’ll bet such an amount of money to make fun of you, do you?” He saw Sakuma-san pausing in his track and giving him a pondering glance.

“Well… it seems a bit over the top even for you…” he admitted in the end with a sigh. Miyoshi chuckled.

“A bit, huh?” Well, maybe he had really teased him too much if Sakuma-san had grown so wary of him he’d think he’ll bet that much just for this. And he seemed to have missed a piece of the puzzle but since he wasn’t the only one it was excusable, Miyoshi guessed. He closed the gap between them and pulled the man closer so as to speak straight in his ear. “Sakuma-san, Yūki-san basically vouched on your ability to pull this off and I want to see Kaminaga getting trashed as well. It would only be fair, wouldn’t it?”

No, Sakuma though, it wouldn’t be fair because it wasn’t like Kaminaga had forced Miyoshi into this and anyway the Lieutenant Colonel had never vouched on him or… had he? Why pulling out that old story really? The Lieutenant Colonel could easily predict that the others would insist on seeing it by themselves but they were supposedly better than his past opponent so Sakuma wouldn’t get past and… which sort of lesson could come from this for them? Yet Miyoshi said…

“That’s nowhere near _‘fair’_ ,” he settled on saying. “You got yourself in that situation of your own free will, it’s not like Kaminaga goaded you into it.”

Miyoshi sighed. Discussing _‘fairness’_ with Sakuma-san was always getting him nowhere.

“Are you two done discussing? I’m getting bored!” Kaminga protested. “Are we going to try this or our proud Army soldier doesn’t feel up to take a little risk?” Sakuma-san glared. Miyoshi saw his chance. If Sakuma-san felt annoyed with Kaminaga, he might feel more prone to try to beat him up.

“Well, maybe it’s a little unfair… but he’s practically asking for it, isn’t he?”

“And you all practically want to goad me into this.” Sakuma-san pointed out.

“Fundamentally yes. Does it make things better if I say I’ve the utmost faith in your ability to trash Kaminaga?” It just made things weirder, Sakuma thought. Kaminaga should see it coming and stop him… unless… He gave a quick look around. The others were just looking at him, their expressions a mix between curious and expectant. Was it possible that…

He sighed. Only one way to find out. Besides he didn’t really like to step away from a challenge, even if technically it wasn’t one he was supposed to win. An Army soldier doesn’t walk away from battle just because he might lose. He untied the buttons of the collar of his shirt.

“Fine. Let’s get on with this,” he finally agreed then pulled his shirt over his head and handed it to Miyoshi.

“Uh?” Not that Miyoshi didn’t enjoy the view of Sakuma-san shirtless but…

“Keep it safe,” he instructed. “As you surely know, it’s not like I’ve got many of them.” Miyoshi grinned.

“Then, since you were so kind to take part to our little _‘learning experience’_ , as a thank you, I’ll buy you a whole dozen of them.”

“No, thanks. Besides I doubt you’ll find something you can learn in this… and you shouldn’t make promises you aren’t sure you can keep,” Sakuma-san warned him, evidently still thinking Miyoshi can lose somehow, but his eyes were on Kaminaga now, focused and intent as he tied back the sword on his side. Even though he seemed to think that the odds were against him, he wasn’t going to go down without fighting to the best of his abilities. Miyoshi had no problems to mentally admit he liked to see the man so concentrated on his goal, as if the rest of the world wasn’t even there, though he would have preferred if that gaze was on him, instead than Kaminaga.

During their little skirmish Sakuma-san had looked calm and confident, which had still been pleasant to watch, but now, in Miyoshi’s opinion, he looked even better. This was the expression he had when he faced a challenge, he wasn’t sure he could win but still he planned to give his all. Miyoshi liked it.

“Ready?” Kaminaga asked in his most confident tone. He too could see that, even if Sakuma-san seemed to believe he had little chances to win, he would do his best to do so. He was taking that little game seriously, as if it was really a matter of life and death. Well, it likely was a matter of pride to him, and pride, to Sakuma-san, amounted more or less to the same as a matter of life and death. This made him dangerous but… but Kaminaga knew he was fast and Tazaki was right, Sakuma-san was too distant to accomplish reaching him before Kaminaga would manage to push the trigger.

Kaminaga couldn’t see how the man would manage to defeat him in a frontal attack yet Yūki-san had seemed to imply he could and Miyoshi was willing to bet on such possibility so could it be Sakuma-san was faster than he looked?

But even if he were… he was a target too big to miss in a frontal attack. If it were a surprise attack maybe but like this… there was no way he was going to lose. Yet he couldn’t shake off the feeling he was missing something… but what?

Well, he could discover it only by trying, right?

Keeping his confident grin he moved to pull out the gun and saw Sakuma-san move toward him as well. So far so good, a side of his brain though, Sakuma-san was still too distant, he would still manage to pull the trigger and…

…and he figured what he had missed moments later when the force of the impact of the Bokuto against his stomach caused him to double over.

He hadn’t expected Sakuma-san to try dodging the shoot as soon as Kaminaga had attempted pushing the trigger. He hadn’t expected the man to toss himself on the ground and roll over it so as to get close enough he could use his sword. Kaminaga could fire the toy gun only once and its _‘bullet’_ simply didn’t have the same speed of a real bullet. The moment he had pressed the trigger, confident Sakuma-san would remain an easy target, he lost their little game.

He fell on his knees, his hands holding his stomach, grasping for air.

He’d been so sure Sakuma-san would go for a dumb frontal attack, so sure… Wasn’t there what the Army was teaching to its soldiers? To unsheathe their Katana and toss themselves right against the enemy and… and…

Sakuma stood. He’d been right, after all.

_‘Yūki-san basically vouched on your ability to pull this off.’_

So Miyoshi had said and that had been what had pushed him to place that absurd bet. It hadn’t really be faith in him, but faith in the Lieutenant Colonel’s ability to predict how things would go. Because, evidently, not even Miyoshi could figure how Sakuma, back then, had escaped death. Even though it was obvious… they all assumed he wouldn’t take such a course of action… because this wasn’t exactly what was in the Army’s manual and they had all expected he would merely blindly follow it.

He sheathed the Bokuto. He wasn’t exactly proud of what he had done.

“Isn’t this using an expedient, Sakuma-san?”

“ _‘A true warrior must have heroic courage. It is absolutely risky. It is living life completely, fully and wonderfully. Heroic courage is not blind. It is intelligent and strong,’_ ” Sakuma quoted. “Nowhere it’s said a true warrior is one who doesn’t dodge blows and this wasn’t a Kendō match. I told you, there was nothing to learn here.” He retrieved his shirt without bothering to look at Miyoshi and then his jacket and, after excusing himself to the Lieutenant Colonel, left.

An uncomfortable silence fell.

“So, was it a learning experience for you all or not?” Yūki-san asked them.

“He didn’t really use any impressive method… In the same situation we could have come up with it as well…” Hatano grumbled looking sideway. He knew that this was exactly the problem.

“Yes,” Yūki-san agreed with him. “So why none of you has anticipated it?”

“I guess… our expectations on how an Army soldier would act in such a situation sort of influenced our ability to predict what Sakuma-san would do,” Amari admitted.

“Being blinded by preconceptions isn’t a luxury a spy could allow himself. You like to make fun of Sakuma because he’s closed minded on certain matters and can’t see beyond what it was taught to him in the Army. As a result you underestimated him and end up on not seeing the easiest answer. How this make any of you any better than him? You shouldn’t discharge possibilities because you think your opponent is below you.”

Said this the man turned around and left, leaving his eight students to sort their own thoughts.

* * *

**JJ's Notes:**

**1\. Fukumoto and food:** Everybody knows it but I guess it helps to remember that Fukumoto took over cooking duties at D Agency. No idea if Sakuma loves his cooking but I’ve assumed he does.

 **2\. Obligatory conscription:** In Japan each male citizen had to face two years of obligatory conscription hence all the guys probably had to spend some time in the Army… except maybe Hatano and Jitsui who might have asked to postpone it to finish studies as they look they might be young enough. It seems it wasn’t so easy to postpone it though so I’m not sure. Anyway, I’ll go and assume most of D Agency had to go through it or a part of it.

 **3\. D Agency’s cafeteria:** It has mostly tables for 4 people, except the one around which they play poker which was used by 5 people.

 **4\. Japanese soldiers and swords:** Japanese soldiers used to carry a Katana on their side. Not all of them were good at using it though. The Katana was sort of a leftover of the Samurai days (it’s a long story) but, during **‘Joker Game’** time, the Army was also formed by commoners who had never used a sword and not just by Samurai. To try to make up for this the Toyama Military Academy made a simplified military sword fencing methodology, the Toyama-ryū (戸山流), that was implemented in the Army, in which in all the techniques were practiced from a standing position. The curriculum of Toyama-ryū is limited, as its original purpose was to provide a basic system of swordsmanship to WWII-era combatants and, it seems the original 7 techniques that made the _‘style for military swords’_ (軍刀の奏法 Guntō no Sōhō) that were taught at the Army school had some irrational elements (weird rhythm because the techniques were made to suit military marching, many straight cuts that were not practical, two techniques in which one cuts downward diagonally across the opposite leg which is very dangerous). Now, I’ve no idea how good the training of conscripted soldiers was… here I’m assuming it was way less good compared to the one of career soldiers, which is why Miyoshi thinks rather poorly of the ability of soldiers of using their swords.

 **5\. Monthly pay for a Second Lieutenant:** At the time amounted to around 70.83 yen. I’m assumed that’s what the boys are as it was implied in the novel that, like in real life Nakano school, they were made second lieutenants. Betting 50 yen therefore meant betting quite a lot.

 **6\. Water guns:** Yes, they existed back then too, though it seems they usually could shoot only once. I guess they couldn’t contain much water inside. It also seems they weren’t so fast at shooting so Miyoshi, with a water gun, was slightly at disadvantage compared to how fast he would have been if he had had a real gun. It’s a moth point though as they don’t think the shooter could have been as fast as Miyoshi or more, hence the slowness of the water gun helped to recreated the assumed conditions.

 **7\. Bokuto (木刀):** Also known as Bokken (木剣) is basically a sword shaped as a Katana but made in wood. Do not confuse it with the Shinai (竹刀), the wooden sword used in Kendō (剣道).

 **8\. Saya (鞘):** Fundamentally it is a scabbard for a Katana… or, in this case, a Bokuto/Bokken.

 **9\. Fines:** In the novel and in the **‘D no Maō’** manga who acted in such a way that gave away he was a soldier was fined. This isn’t shown happening in the anime but Shiro Miwa draw a panel in which it happened in it too.

 **10\. Bowing to the sword:** Yes, Sakuma bowed to the sword before using it. It’s not a military practice, making the ToRei (刀礼 “Bowing to the sword”) is, in this case, a martial art practice (so Sakuma won’t be fined for it). There are various ways to do it, according to the school and so on. Sakuma did it while standing but it can be done while in Seiza position as well.

 **10\. Kendōgu (剣道具) or Bōgu (防具):** Training armour used by who practice Kendō (剣道). Composed by Men (面) a combined face mask and shoulder protectors, Kote (小手), hand and forearm protectors, Dō (胴), torso protector and Tare (垂れ), groin and leg protectors. In the first draft I was thinking to have Sakuma telling Miyoshi to just get a Kote… then I thought this would make clear to Miyoshi the point Sakuma was going to strike and not even he would be that obvious.

 **11\. Sakuma and swords:** No idea how good Sakuma is with a sword but since he seems to like it and illustrations here and there played with this I assumed he was very good, way better than he would be if he had only learnt the Toyama-ryū and nothing more. It helps in the novel it’s stated he was good enough at the Military School to be considered an elite student. What he does here is Battōjutsu (also called Iaijutsu), a combative quick-draw sword technique, which was one of the disciplines studied in the education of the classical warrior or Bushi if you prefer. This technique later evolved in what now is called Iaidō (officially named as such in 1932 but existing way before). On Youtube you can see some video. They’re cool even if in some of them it’s played more like an art than as a fast defensive technique (in short they aim more at moving beautifully and precisely than quickly). There are lots of different schools. Just so you know one can draw out a Katana and attack in 0.6 seconds. A present day typical gunfight last 3 seconds. Sorry, I couldn’t find the exact time that would took a person to draw and push a trigger in Joker Game time but well, this should give you an idea. Oh and yes, to pull out a sword while rolling on the ground is among the drawing sword techniques of some Battōjutsu schools so yes, it’s possible.

 **13\. Kenjutsu (剣術):** It is basically Japanese swordsmanship. Includes Kendō, Iaidō and… everything you can do with a sword, really.

 **14\. Chiburi (血振り) and Nōtō (納刀):** The Chiburi is a movement done before sheathing the sword. It’s name means ‘blood removal’ and it was done exactly in order to get rid of part of the blood that would remain on the Katana after striking an opponent (you then would still need to wipe the sword afterward as blood is bad for the blade). Even if Sakuma hadn’t really drawn blood, the standard technique for sheathing the sword in many schools, included the Toyama-Ryu, includes the Chiburi movement. Nōtō means ‘sheathing the sword’ and there are various techniques to do it. Just so you know Sakuma doesn’t spin the sword around just to show off but because it’s one of the techniques used to sheath the sword that also works to improve wrist dexterity.

 **15\. Kendōka (剣道家):** Who practices Kenjutsu or, if you prefer, Japanese swordsmanship. The sport discipline Kendō is different from Iaidō as Kendō is practiced with the sword already pulled out from the scabbard, while in Iaidō you starts with the sword in the scabbard.

 **16\. Monthly pay for a Lieutenant:** I’ve already said that monthly pay for a Second Lieutenant at the time amounted to around 70.83 yen. First Lieutenants had two pay classes, one of 85.00 yen and another of 94.16 yen. I’m assuming Sakuma is in the second. And yes, Miyoshi is betting **A LOT**.

 **17\. Obi (帯):** It’s the belt to which you tie the Saya (鞘 “Scabbard”) of your Katana/Bokuto.

 **18. _‘A true warrior must have heroic courage. It is absolutely risky. It is living life completely, fully and wonderfully. Heroic courage is not blind. It is intelligent and strong.’_ :** It’s apparently a quote from the _‘Hagakure’ (葉隠)_ a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo. During WW2 it was basically the Holy Bible of how soldiers should behave. I bet Sakuma can quote it.

 **19\. Kaminaga’s chances of victory:** Kaminaga would have managed to beat Sakuma if he could shoot a second time. As he wasted his first shoot and his gun couldn’t fire twice he lost. Actually he could have beaten Sakuma even with just a shoot if he hadn’t assumed Sakuma wouldn’t try to avoid the blow or had been caught on surprise when he did. His misjudgement and his hesitation gave Sakuma enough time to pull it through. Kaminaga’s misjudgement is based on his low opinion of Sakuma. If he’d valued him correctly or had kept wary of him and open minded he wouldn’t have lost. The idea the spies might misjudge Sakuma to the point they wouldn’t figure out what he’ll do doesn’t really come from the ‘Joker Game’ episode, in which he surprised them, but from the ‘Robinson’ one, in which Lieutenant Colonel Marks tricked Kaminaga into believing the map he saw about the place was the correct one. If Kaminaga, who’s in my humble opinion one of Yūki’s best spies, could think Marks would make a stupid mistake by allowing him to see a map of the place, all the more he could think that Sakuma (who’s **DEFINITELY** not in Marks league) wouldn’t be smart enough to try and avoid the shoot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you can’t tell I had to do a lot of research for the sword usage part of this fic and, for once, I can’t really complain about how boring it was as it actually was really cool to learn about Katana usage. You can realistically do with it things I thought only manga characters could do.  
> Also, to write this fic, I assumed Sakuma kept on being a liaison between the Army and D Agency, at least for a little longer. In the novel and in the anime is fate is actually left unknown, he just disappears from the plot, while the D no Maou manga bluntly says that, after this, he was sent on the frontlines because he decided to side with D Agency. While it’s rather likely that his fate was the one written in the D no Maou manga, well, I preferred to assume he wasn’t moved away immediately, hence he and the boys had the time to learn to get along, though I figured it wouldn’t be easy in the beginning. Hence this.


	2. Chapter 2

The beer hall was packed as usual, a German marching song playing in the background while the many round chandeliers hanging on the big ceiling were spreading a soft light through the big room.

Going to Ginza Lion Beer Hall from the “Greater East Asia Cultural Society” with public transportation took around half a hour. Yūki’s students though liked the place and visited it often.

The beer was good, the atmosphere was nice, the food had a foreign flavor and, thanks to its tile art, the hall was pretty enough to satisfy Miyoshi’s aesthetical sense, which was always good as no one was particularly fond of hearing him criticize everything.

The group chose a quiet corner for themselves, placed closer two of the round four people tables and seated around them.

That night the general mood of the students was gloomy and so, instead than practicing on socializing, seducing and whatever else they could come up with, they were still mulling over what had happened during the day.

“Man, I’m broke,” Kaminaga admitted with a sigh, slouching down on the table. “I shouldn’t have taken up that bet. Amari lend me one of your cigarettes…”

“Haven’t I already volunteered to pay up for your drinks?” Amari pointed out, but he was laughing and it was clear he didn’t mind handing one of his cigarettes to Kaminaga.

“Actually, I still don’t get why you did take the bet. It was clear Yūki-san thought Sakuma-san could pull it through,” Miyoshi pointed out, looking at him with mild curiosity. Kaminaga glared.

“I thought he’ll mess up! He didn’t even get how Yūki-san expected him to succeed….” He trailed off, then something dawned on him. “Miyoshi, admit it, you suggested him to avoid!”

“I swear I had no idea what Sakuma-san was up to, nor I gave him suggestions,” Miyoshi stated, shaking his head in denial. “I only told him Yūki-san was thinking he could do it. The rest was entirely Sakuma-san’s idea.” A quite simple idea actually, but since none of them had expected him to come up with something in the first place, it had caught them all on surprise.

“I guess we were all a bit biased in our expectations on what Sakuma-san would do,” Tazaki admitted before lighting his own cigarette. “It feels silly now, but back then I didn’t even consider he’ll realize that going straight at the enemy wouldn’t have been the best course of action and so he would have to think of something different.”

“Well, maybe spending his time with us did some good to him,” Hatano offered, then took a sip of his beer. It was good.

“Well, Yūki-san and Sakuma-san didn’t really gave us much details but, apparently, this whole thing had happened **BEFORE** Sakuma-san moved in with us, and Sakuma-san merely repeated what he had done back then. I guess this was in him prior to being exposed to us… though maybe, from the way he spoke about it, the Army tried to curb it out of him,” Miyoshi wondered as he leaned his elbows on the table. “Those guys are so dumb they can even end up damaging what little good they have in their soldiers,” he added with disgust.

“Yūki-san considered asking him to join us. He must have the ability to be capable when required,” Fukumoto stated. Kaminaga shrugged.

“I can’t see him as one of us.”

“You probably never will. He refused,” Miyoshi reminded him, sounding somewhat displeased. “And I doubt he plans to change his mind. That man is infuriatingly stubborn,” he commented making a gesture of annoyance. 7 pairs of eyes darted on him but no one, not even Hatano, felt like commenting Miyoshi could be annoyingly stubborn as well. They all knew it was a lost cause to try and have Miyoshi make some auto criticism.

“Do you think Yūki-san is a man who takes no for an answer? Maybe this whole thing was merely to prepare the way for him to join our ranks. Man, this is a bother.” Kaminaga sighed. He wasn’t sure he could get along with Sakuma-san if he were to had to deal with him also as a spy in training.

Amari chuckled as he leaned comfortably on the back of his chair.

“Well, it’ll be interesting to watch, considering both Yūki-san and Sakuma-san can be pretty hard headed.”

“Do you think Sakuma-san can keep up with us?” Jitsui asked, sounding genuinely curious. Among them though, one could never say what was truly _‘genuine’_ and what was merely faked for the sake of practicing in tricking others.

“Let’s see, he probably wouldn’t have too many problems on the physical side. His records said his results at the Academy were rather good, enough to make him elite among the other students. And now we know that when they say he was good with the Katana, they meant it,” Hatano commented. They hadn’t thought much of Sakuma-san’s votes the first time they secretly checked on his records, but now they were starting to think probably they shouldn’t have dismissed them so quickly. “You sure you don’t want to put ice on that, Miyoshi?” he asked then with a grin.

“As I’ve said, it’s fine,” Miyoshi lied smoothly. It wasn’t but he could bear it.

“Well, knowing him, he was probably a honour student or something, always busy doing his best and according to the rules. This doesn’t mean it would be enough among us,” Tazaki pointed out. “He can be intuitive on some matters but he’s completely blind on some others, he’s easy to trick and his memory is sort of selective. If he were to go through our same training… well, ultimately I doubt he would make the final cut.” It was hard for Tazaki to think Sakuma-san could make a good spy in the end. Oh, if Sakuma-san were to decide to try to do it, he would probably pour all his heart and soul on it as Sakuma-san wasn’t one to do things half way but… there were things he seemed to lack and that instead were important in their line of work. Without them…

“Maybe Yūki-san thinks it’s a problem that can be fixed,” Jitsui offered. “Or maybe he’s just curious to see **IF** it can be fixed and he’s using Sakuma-san as his own guinea pig. You know, to see how much is possible to erase conditioning.” Differently from them, Sakuma-san had apparently been raised from young age to become a soldier. He’d been exposed to the Army’s mentality much more than them and had absorbed it and, mostly, made it his own. Jitsui wondered if it was possible that it was due to his upbringing that Sakuma-san had certain flaws they lacked, and not due to the man’s effective abilities.

“Maybe so. However, not to make light of the man, but there are some things I’ll doubt he’ll ever been willing to pull out. Can you see him considering to learn how to pick a lock?” Amari pointed out. Some of them chuckled. Sakuma-san was never subtle in expressing his disapprobation for something and they remembered his reaction the first day they had such lessons.

Maybe it was due to his upbringing that Sakuma-san was the way he was but, to Amari, it was a little too late to try and change things. Sakuma-san wasn’t a child anymore. The way he was now, was part of himself and this gave him an outlook on the world that was pretty different from the one a spy should have.

“He’s not cut for this, let’s face it. He’s just Army material, nothing more,” Kaminaga insisted dismissively. Kaminaga had clashed often with Sakuma-san, though not as often as Miyoshi and was pretty sure that, even if the both of them had been ordinary guys and not a spy and a soldier, they would still have things in which they would clash. It wasn’t even a matter of being right or wrong in their views of the world, in Kaminaga’s eyes they simply didn’t match and, due to this, Sakuma-san ended up on getting in his way, annoying him, hence he preferred to keep him out of the picture.

“Sakuma-san’s blow still hurts, doesn’t it, Kaminaga?” Hatano teased. Kaminaga snorted.

“Fine, he’s better Army material I initially gave him credit for, I’ll admit it, maybe we can even say he’s fine Army material, but he’s just that. You won’t persuade me he can learn to do our job in a decent way and you too don’t believe in it.”

Truth to be told in Kaminaga’s eyes Sakuma-san was a commendable soldier, the sort the Army should be proud to have… and the sort that didn’t advance much exactly because the Army was filled of hypocrites that appreciate only what contributed to their self interest and people like Sakuma-san didn’t fit the description… which made Sakuma-san’s virtues ultimately useless. Which good would it do to him to be like that when his superior officers would prefer to crush him and get rid of him for their own petty reasons? Ultimately, regardless of Sakuma-san deciding to try on being a spy or remaining in the Army, he needed to change or he wouldn’t last long and it was stupid of him he hadn’t done it already. A man who couldn’t change… how could he make a decent spy?

“True, I don’t,” Hatano agreed effortlessly. “Still, if Yūki-san is interested in him he won’t let go easily and I’m not really sure I want Sakuma-san among our ranks. As a Liaison he is annoying enough.”

“Yeah, and he can’t stand us at all,” Kaminaga agreed. After all it was hard to want to join forces with someone who always looked down at you, as if you were something distasteful, and seemed to resent your whole existence. 

“Well, it’s clear he doesn’t have a good impression on spies and he’s not shy of pointing it out,” Amari admitted. He wasn’t so sure about Sakuma-san loathing them but it was clear enough they weren’t in the list of Sakuma-san’s favourite people. “Besides, he’s very loyal to the Army and we know for sure that the Army can’t stand us and would like to get rid of us and this doesn’t help. If he were to join, won’t this turn into a problem?”

“Sakuma-san won’t join,” Odagiri said with a tone of finality. “He has no intention or wish to do it and Yūki-san has no interest in training an unwilling spy.” It was rare for Odagiri to express his own opinion. He was more the silent guy type, prone to keep everything for himself so, when he spoke up, he always ended attracting attention.

“You’ll bet on this?” Miyoshi challenged.

“You want to bet on him joining?” Odagiri asked back in disbelief. Odagiri had no idea why Miyoshi was always so interested in Sakuma-san, to the point he would go out of his way to annoy the man. It rubbed Odagiri the wrong way as he had never appreciated seeing someone bullying someone else and even living at D Agency hadn’t changed this side of him.

“Sometimes you seem awfully sure of what Sakuma-san can and can’t do, Odagiri. Enough to bet with Kaminaga on him beating me. I wonder from where that confidence comes,” Miyoshi sounded as if he was merely making a casual observation but, in truth, he wanted to know. He was good and yet Odagiri had no problems in betting against him. From where he got the confidence Sakuma-san could beat him? Why was Odagiri so prone on sticking up for Sakuma-san? Which sort of interests Odagiri had in the man?

“Yes, Odagiri. How did you know he was that good?” Hatano asked. Odagiri didn’t reply immediately.

“I saw him doing Kata,” he admitted in the end. “He knows way more of them than the ones taught in the Army and our trainer can only wish to perform them so quickly and flawlessly. If you ask me, he’s the sort who can be chosen do Tameshigiri to test the quality of a Katana, instead than being asked to do it to prove his own skill. He knew how fast Miyoshi is with a gun and, if he said he could be faster with a Katana, it was safe to assume that he was.”

“You went to see a Kendō match with him and his Army buddies, didn’t you?” Miyoshi said in a careless tone. Odagiri was the only one who managed to go somewhere with Sakuma-san and he never talked about what happened with them, which only increased Miyoshi’s interest for details. However, due to his poor relationship with Odagiri and the other’s lack of talkativeness he never found the chance to ask for them before.

“He had a spare ticket and I like Kendō.” Odagiri wasn’t sure why he’d been invited. Maybe it had been Sakuma-san’s way to thank him for warning him about the Joker Game. Maybe it had been just a coincidence. He wasn’t sure Sakuma-san had worked out he was trying to help him, since he got pretty angry when he realized Odagiri’s role during the game. There had been no second invitation though. Maybe he felt with this he had cleared his debt or he had judged Odagiri’s company boring or Sakuma-san’s friends hadn’t been happy with Odagiri’s presence or… something else really. Odagiri had no idea.

“Well? How’s Sakuma-san outside of D Agency?” Amari asked. “Still so very stiff and aloof?”

“Yes, Odagiri, share the info you’ve collected during your investigation,” Kaminaga prodded.

“I didn’t do any _‘investigation’_ , I just watched a Kendō match. As for Sakuma-san he behaved just like a normal person going to see a Kendō competition. There isn’t really much else to say,” Odagiri replied in a blank tone. He didn’t appreciate their curiosity and the implication he went to the match just to study Sakuma-san… as if he had some sort of interest in investigating him.

His statement was met with annoyed glances. He ignored them. Truth to be told, Sakuma-san really didn’t do anything special that day… but if they wanted to think he was withholding information… well, he didn’t mind about it.

“He must have been a specially unpleasant company,” Hatano commented. “He’s always so strict and prone to scold…” Odagiri didn’t reply immediately, as if to consider if he should say something or not.

“He wasn’t bad,” he admitted in the end. “When he was with his friends he was much more relaxed. They joked a lot and made fun of each other and were really into the match. And I think he smiled and laughed most of the time.”

It had grown increasingly hard to see Sakuma-san smile at D Agency. He was mostly on his own or at Yūki-san’s side, alternatively being silent or yelling at them in a scolding tone. After his experience with the Joker Game he hadn’t tried playing with them ever again and often he would leave the room if he were to catch them discussing philosophic or political matters.

Odagiri pitied the man. He was like someone on a foreign land, cut from the people around him. The other spies weren’t the best company to Odagiri either, as they all had to keep a mask up all the time, but, at least, they were company enough he could sit among them while Sakuma-san seemed to prefer to avoid them even for something that simple.

“So it’s just us he’s avoiding like plague and being a jerk with,” Hatano went on. “Are we that scary? Or that disgusting to him?”

“Aren’t you also avoiding him and interacting with him only when you think you can tease him?” Tazaki reminded him.

“Weeell… maybe there’s fault from both sides?” Amari offered. He wasn’t among the ones really avoiding the man but he didn’t exactly seek him out either and he had done his share of teasing, though he’d never been as bad as some others.

“But Miyoshi invited him to come with us in the city more than once and he always refused,” Kaminaga pointed out. “And he’s the one who always started on yelling us for no reason good at all.”

“Can it be he views what he says to us as _‘advices’_?” Jitsui offered while refilling Amari’s glass.

“ _‘Advices’_?” Hatano sounded sceptical.

“Sakuma-san quoted _‘Hagakure’_ today, remember? That book also says _‘It is very important to give advice to a man to help him mend his ways. It is a compassionate and important duty’_ and _‘Generally it is considered a kindness in helping people with things they hate or find difficult to say’_. As a soldier, I bet Sakuma-san had studied it and applied it to his own thinking,” he explained.

Jitsui had an odd relationship with Sakuma-san in which he recommended him western books and the man occasionally commented them with him and did Jitsui small favours back. Nothing over the top, but it was still noteworthy compared to how interacted with others and it was even more remarkable this didn’t end after the argument they had about the orthodoxy of the Tennosei system, even though Jitsui’s position had been blasphemy in his eyes.

Actually the fact that in both parties there wasn’t bad blood due to that was something that puzzled all the others members of D Agency.

“Man, so now we should view him saying all those things to us as him showing his kindness to us? That’s screwed,” Kaminaga commented. “Say, Odagiri, was he like that with his friends? Yelling at them at any turn?”

“Well, they’re more similar in mentality to him than we are so he didn’t really clash on them as much as he does with us… but yes, he was pretty prone to scold even them. The others didn’t seem to think too much of this though, as if it was just a character flaw they got used at, and even joked he was the Army’s moral conscience or something like that.”

“Didn’t he got angry at them saying that?”

“Not really. He laughed it off and said someone had to be. At this, one of them told him that it was fine as long as he didn’t try it with superior officers.”

The general impression Odagiri got from that night was that, despite being prone to yell and scold at people and being way too strict, Sakuma-san was loved by his Army mates. They seemed to judge him fair and honest and appreciate him for that. That was the Army though. Among spies honesty and fairness weren’t really commendable virtues.

“So you think he’s not as much of a jerk as he looks,” Kaminaga summarized. “Still he doesn’t like us and he’s an Army spy and we know how the Army feels about us. He’ll end up selling us to them.”

“Well, the Colonel tried to involve him in his plans but Sakuma-san didn’t really knew about what that guy was up to though. In regard to us and in regard to himself. And he would have been willing to commit Harakiri if he hadn’t figured out where the cipher were,” Miyoshi pointed out. “I’ll say if his plan was to sell us out… well, he’s not really good at it.”

Honestly Miyoshi didn’t think anymore Sakuma-san wanted to sell them out or something. He might not like them much but he just didn’t have in him to backstab them. He likely wouldn’t see it as _‘fair’_ and Miyoshi had a half idea that Sakuma-san had followed Yūki-san’s plan in regard to what to do with Gordon more because he thought what the Colonel attempted to do wasn’t _‘fair’_ toward them and he needed to be _‘punished’_ for that than because the Colonel has attempted to use him as scapegoat.

“He’s a weird guy though. The Army tried to get rid of him too and yet he remains loyal to it even though it betrayed him,” Amari observed sipping his drink.

“Because he’s stupid, that’s what he is,” Hatano stated in a dismissing tone.

“More like a stubborn believer in the Army’s ideals. Who betrayed him was a person, not the whole Army so he probably thought _‘unfair’_ to resent the whole Army for it,” Tazaki suggested. “Maybe all this was about is that Yūki-san is subtly telling us that keeping on nagging Sakuma-san can end up on being harmful for D Agency in the long run. Kittens too have claws and he proved underestimating him could be dangerous.”

Tazaki didn’t really have troubles with Sakuma-san but Tazaki was the calm type who was good at handling everyone so he hardly entered in conflict with him. To Tazaki, Sakuma-san seemed too trusting and honest to become a spy… yet he could pick up explanations and learn from them and he wasn’t that bad at observing behaviours and interpreting them. He could probably play the Joker Game decently enough… if it wasn’t for the fact he simply refused playing something he viewed as cheating. In Tazaki’s eyes this ultimately meant that Sakuma-san had potential but that he consciously or unconsciously refused to use it at the moment… or didn’t quite know how to use it yet.

This potential though… could be used against them as well. He didn’t think Sakuma-san was the type to backstab them on their own… but he would always obey to orders and, if he were to persuade himself they were a thorn in the Army’s side, a real threat to it, he was the type who would try and do something. Likely something he’ll judge fair or that he’ll be tricked into thinking is fair but still… something.

Sakuma-san spent most of his day observing them as his duty required… what had he truly picked up about them, and what he hadn’t? Was it enough to harm them? Would he capable to use it against them should he think he should?

It was hard to say so Tazaki preferred to play on the safe side and not get in the man’s way.

“Yeah, so far he hasn’t managed to cause any problem but…” Hatano began and Odagiri scoffed, his expression similar to Sakuma-san when he’d been hearing Kaminaga’s theory. It was Fukumoto though who noticed and asked him about it. Odagiri seemed to hesitate only a moment before answering.

“You’re all seeing him as some sort of enemy. Maybe all Yūki-san wanted us to realize was that we are all on the same side and none of us seemed to have figured it out yet,” he offered.

“He’s not on our same side, Odagiri-san. He’s on the Army’s side,” Jitsui pointed out. “It’ not his fault but that’s where he stands.”

“And in his eyes we’re all Second Lieutenants of the Imperial Army, are we not?” Odagiri shot back.

Miyoshi frowned at Odagiri’s words and remembered Sakuma-san reminding him he was part of the Army too. So had all their arguments caused by the fact Sakuma-san, as the higher in rank, felt the need to _‘advise’_ them? Well, surely in the Army who’s of higher rank yells a lot to who’s of lower rank so…

“If he really wanted to damage us,” Odagiri went on, “Miyoshi and Kaminaga would be in the infirmary respectively one with a broken arm and shoulder and the other with internal damage. He held back when fighting with them even though this likely slowed him down, even though going at it full force would be perfectly reasonable for someone in the Army and likely the Colonel would have praised him and used it as proof we’re weaklings. And if he had really always reported us to the General Headquarters each time he scolded us, the Colonel wouldn’t have needed to wait for the Gordon Case to try to frame D Agency for something that’s harmful to the Army. If you’ll consider how many times he yelled at us we were doing something that went from inappropriate to blasphemous, the Army would have, by now, a list of reports as tall as Fukumoto to use against us.”

To be honest they all had noticed that, during the fight, Sakuma-san had been soft with Miyoshi and Kaminaga, which was something that had annoyed both his adversaries but no one, apart Odagiri apparently, had thought at it as an act of kindness, more that he had thought they weren’t worth it or that they wouldn’t be able to handle it.

“Sakuma-san is the type who does what he says though. If he said he’ll report us, why didn’t he?” Tazaki asked.

“Yes, let’s give credits to the man when it’s due, he’s one that’ll go through whatever he says, even if it’s about committing Harakiri if he can’t find something. Well, actually he would have gone though what **MIYOSHI** had said as it wasn’t even his idea, and he would have done it just in order not to tarnish the Army’s honour. I can argue with him all I want but I can’t see him taking back his word,” Kaminaga admitted.

“Yūki-san. That’s why he didn’t report us,” Jitsui stated.

“Uh? Yūki-san ordered him not to? Even though Yūki-san is higher in ranking I don’t think he can order him not to report things to the General Staff Headquarters,” Amari pointed out.

“That’s not what I’m meaning. Yūki-san merely gave Sakuma-san a valid reason not to need to report the things we did. Sakuma-san once told me he wouldn’t report the matter with the Tennosei system because Yūki-san basically told him that being able to keep up the whole discussion was part of our training and therefore, even if he didn’t like it, he wouldn’t get in our way. Likely, since Yūki-san always takes responsibility for what we do, Sakuma-san let it slide,” Jitsui explained.

“If you put it this way, it feels like some sort of private mummery the two of them are playing… It’s almost comical, one says _‘I’ll report it to the General Headquarter!’_ the other goes _‘Wait, it’s just for training…’_ and then Sakuma-san ends _‘Oh, if it’s training it’s all right..._ ’ And they do this over and over.”

“I doubt it’s an act on Sakuma-san’s part. He just takes things at face value and says whatever goes in his mind. He’s not the guy who takes something for the show.”

“Well, it explains why Yūki-san goes out of his way to explain things to Sakuma-san.”

“Makes sense. We should thanks Yūki-san.”

“Yūki-san isn’t always there when Sakuma-san blows up a fuse though. It means that, instead of just reporting things, later on Sakuma-san checks with Yūki-san if it was okay for him to blow up a fuse or not… sort of giving us the benefit of doubt or something like that.”

“Also, often it didn’t look like he really bought Yūki-san’s explanations. The guy even argued with Yūki-san. What stopped him from reporting us when he wasn’t agreeing with Yūki-san?”

“Yes, he still could have reported us, adding Yūki-san’s involvement. If would have made the Colonel even happier as he could have put the blame directly on Yūki-san.”

“So, for this to work, it still requires Sakuma-san’s willing complicity…”

“So that was the purpose of that little _‘learning experience’_ Yūki-san persuaded us to try out? To force us to understand we misjudged Sakuma-san and the man isn’t against us as we thought him to be?”

They hadn’t missed how Yūki-san had manipulated the situation so as to get Sakuma-san and Kaminaga to fight. He should have had a reason for that, something bigger than just telling them _‘not to undervalue the enemy’_.

“Well, it makes sense. Maybe he thinks this will persuade us to stop annoying the man so it’ll be also easier to persuade him to join or something. Still…” Hatano crossed his arms behind his head and stared at the ceiling, as if to search for inspiration. “I can’t see him becoming one of us.” He wasn’t searching for inspiration really. He was just remembering how he’d been told that, no matter how much better he was at Bujutsu than his older brother, since he was the younger he wouldn’t inherit the family’s Dōjō. His father wouldn’t bend rules for him in respect to his ability. Even though his brother didn’t have nor the talent or the wish to inherit… just because he was older… he would take their father’s place and that was it. Sakuma-san seemed to have the same stubborn streak. Hatano simply couldn’t see him change his mind.

Miyoshi didn’t comment. Sakuma-san refused and, like everyone else, he couldn’t see him taking back his refusal, which would make the idea of him joining them a moth point… but he had learnt to acknowledge there were things he couldn’t see Sakuma-san doing that the man actually ended up making so he really wasn’t sure on this one.

Besides it was true that Yūki-san was the sort of man who obtained always what he wanted, which was pushing the others… well, Odagiri put aside, not to really keep into consideration the fact that Sakuma-san refused… still…

Had all that had happened really merely part of a ploy to help persuade Sakuma-san to join? Was he worth all this effort? Honestly Miyoshi doubted it. As he saw it, they simply weren’t reading the signals correctly… and this would cause them to lose the game. He didn’t like to lose… but he didn’t seem to manage to come out with a better reading either. Maybe the only thing he could do is to keep his mind open and wait for more clues.

“By the way has anyone come up with a solution for the little riddle Yūki-san had proposed us today? Since Kaminaga’s theory had been shoot down by Sakuma-san, we should come up with something else…” Amari pointed out.

Yes, they had almost forgot. The Major’s death. That day Yūki-san had wanted them to do some intellectual exercise and had told them a story about how a Major got killed and no one managed to figure out how. He hadn’t provided them the true names of the people involved, nor the name of the place where it had happened or when, but had shared with them the story and had handed them a bunch of documents from which names and dates had been carefully blackened out so well not even them had been able to reconstruct them, then had assured them they had at their disposition all that they could need to solve things and had left.

So they had studied what he had left them with, experimented, made theories and… had overlooked how the Major would have defended himself with his sword if the attack had happened the way they thought it had.

Miyoshi frowned in annoyance. There had to be a way to get around that and this time he would be the one who’ll find it… even if nothing came up on his mind at the moment.

_‘Why didn’t the Major try to defend himself?’_

_‘The Major had a Katana, though. He was close enough he could have used that. And since he was good enough with it, it could have worked.’_

_‘If we love them so much as you say it makes even less sense he hadn’t at least tried to use his Katana. He had a decent chance at succeeding. He should have gone for it.’_

_‘He was a trained swordsman, of course with a Katana at his disposition it would have dawn on him to use it to defend himself.’_

Yes, Sakuma-san was right. The Major should have tried to defend himself since he had a Katana. _The Major should have tried to defend himself since he had a Katana._ He blinked. Could it be this was the answer he was searching for?

* * *

**JJ's Notes:**

**1\. Ginza Lion Beer Hall:** This is the place shown in the background of the first Joker Game ending card. I assumed it was one of the places the boys would go to spend their night out.

 **2\. The boys’ nights out:** As everyone probably already know there’s no curfew in D Agency and therefore the students are used to spend their nights out.

 **3\. The boys checking on Sakuma’s records:** Well, I figure that’s something they would do. After all, even Sakuma tried to check their history documents in the novel and in the first draft of Ep 1 only to discover it was confidential material and all blacked out so, all the more, I figured the boys would do the same with him.

 **4\. Sakuma’s abilities:** According to the novel Sakuma is good at observing and memorizing things though he doesn’t believe he’s as good as the D Agency students and had graduated from the Academy with flying colours to the point he was considered an elite. I take all this means he had damn good votes back in his academy time.

 **5\. Katana (刀):** Japanese sword. Students in Military Academies were taught how to use it and Imperial soldiers carried it at their side so it makes sense for Military Schools to teach how to use it.

 **6\. Kata (型 “Form”):** Detailed choreographed patterns of movements practised either solo or in pairs. Odagiri is referring to Sakuma performing Kata with the sword.

 **7: Tameshigiri (試し斬り):** It’s the Japanese art of target test cutting. In the past it was done for testing the quality of Katana and was done only by the most skilled sword men but later on it switched on being done to demonstrate the practitioner's skill with a sword. Basically Odagiri is saying Sakuma is goddamn skilled.

 **8\. Odagiri and Kendō:** No idea if Odagiri likes Kendō but he seemed to have been raised in a traditional environment and it seems he was sent to the Imperial Japanese Army Academy so he might have learnt to appreciate it.

 **9: Hagakure (葉隠):** As said in the past chapter it was a book that was considered a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, a Samurai. During WW2 it was basically the Holy Bible of how soldiers should behave. In it is remarked more than once how it’s a good thing to warn others when what they’re doing is wrong… though it’s also said you should also do it in the right manner… and Sakuma instead is definitely lacking in tact. But well, from what we see in Joker Game and from what I saw in other works Army soldiers weren’t exactly tactful when telling you that you did something wrong… so his lack of tact can probably be blamed to the Army.

 **10\. Sakuma and his Army friends:** The novel claims Sakuma still remember his companions at the academy and the **‘D no Maō’** manga showed him as fond of the friends he had at the Army and appreciated by them. I assumed this means he knew how to be a good friend.

 **11\. Tennosei system:** In the novel Sakuma had an argument with the students that were discussing the emperor and the imperial system. The discussion was meant to be in the anime as well but then was later cut. The ones involved in the discussion were supposed to be Miyoshi, Kaminaga, Amari and Jitsui. Jitsui questioned the validity of the emperor’s position, causing Sakuma to go furious enough he wanted to pull out his sword… only he wasn’t wearing one at the moment...

 **12\. Miyoshi’s not broken arm and shoulder and Kaminaga’s lack of internal damage:** Sakuma’s first blow had his sword move from the bottom to the top. This means that, after hitting Miyoshi’s arm the easiest (and most common) move would have been to bring the sword down on Miyoshi’s left shoulder instead than wasting time to point it at his stomach. Now, being hit with a wooden sword like a Bokuto can effectively break bones if you aren’t wearing protections, which means that, although Sakuma hit Miyoshi hard, he still held back enough not to break bones, which, likely, slowed him down. Same goes for Kaminaga. Being hit in the stomach isn’t a good thing, and if Sakuma had hit him with the tip of his sword, which would have allowed him to stay farther from him, he would have probably done more internal damage. Sakuma got closer instead and hit him less hard but with the back of his sword. The whole thing resulted in damage on a larger zone but less harmful as the blow went less deeply. If Kaminaga hadn’t been caught on surprise, this would have probably given him time enough to avoid the blow. So, in both cases, Sakuma deliberately went out of his way to inflict less damage. Odagiri had seen one of his superior officers being willing to risk to let a feverish soldier die in a training. Of course seeing Sakuma going out of his way and taking the risk to lose to avoid damaging Miyoshi and Kaminaga impressed him.

 **13\. The reports matter:** In the anime it’s not really clear but in the novel it’s made obvious Sakuma is there to supervision Yūki’s students training and that he likely writes reports about it so as to inform the Army on how things are going on. Now the students’ discussion about the Tennosei system is a **BIG** deal. If he had reported it, as he said he would, Mutō could have used it against D Agency or, at least, try to. However it seems that, in one year, Mutō (who made crystalline clear he wanted Sakuma to report on any mistake they made) received absolutely nothing from Sakuma he could use against D Agency, so he ended up taking advantage of the situation he was in and devising a plan himself. Due to this I think that, in the end, Sakuma never reported the students but accepted the fact that they acted that way because they were **ALLOWED** to do it. Of course at this point he could have probably reported Yūki’s training methods as he clearly didn’t agree with them (and Mutō wouldn’t have either)… but it seems this didn’t happen either. Sakuma didn’t want to play the role of the Army’s spy and he didn’t.

 **14\. Hatano’s backstory:** No idea what’s Hatano’s true backstory but apparently he’s the best at hand to hand fights so I assume it’s possible he had past knowledge about it, hence my assumption his family had a martial art school. As he decided to join D Agency instead than continuing the family tradition I thought it might be he’s not the chosen heir. Of course there are dozens of other possible explanations (and I’ve no chance to check if the novel told us something in this regard) so this is just my headcanon.

 **15\. Bujutsu (武術) and Budō (武道):** Fundamentally both are umbrella terms that can be translated as _‘Japanese martial arts’_ (literally they can be translated as _‘technique of war’_ and _‘way of war’_ ) only Bujutsu is typified by its practical application of technique to real-world or battlefield situations (how to best defeat an enemy) and is considered the Army form of martial arts while Budō, which supposedly pays more attention to the mind and how one should develop oneself is considered a more civilian art. Now, I’ve no idea which martial art Hatano is so good about exactly. In Nakano school the spies were supposedly taught Aikidō so it’s possible this is it.

 **16\. Dōjō (道場):** likely everyone knows what a Dōjō is. Literally it means _‘place of the way’_ , in the Western world, it refers to a training place specifically for Japanese martial arts. In Japan, any physical training facility, including professional wrestling schools can be called as such.


	3. Chapter 3

Normally Sakuma wouldn’t get in bed late. Even though there was no curfew at the Greater East Asia Cultural Society, he still obstinately lived his life following the Army’s routine so, unless something work related were to come up, he would go to bed early and get up equally early, way sooner than everyone else in the Agency.

Not that it was really a problem for the students to get up late since lessons there wouldn’t start early and therefore there was no reason for them to leave their beds soon in the morning, especially after a night spent outside doing… well, the Lieutenant Colonel had defined it training and Sakuma felt better if he accepted it was and didn’t dig in the matter too deeply.

This however often provided Sakuma with spare time in the morning and nothing to do to fill it… which in the long run had turned out frustrating, as if being forced to live in a school for spies who did and said things that he’ll never able to understand or approve, wasn’t already a reason of frustration for him in itself.

Sakuma knew a soldier shouldn’t question his assignments but, since he was prone to being honest with himself even when it would be better for him not to, he had no problems admitting he didn’t like the work he was doing there. He never did and, probably, never will do.

Even if he refused to play the role of spy for the Army or, even worse, of the saboteur, he knew that was what Colonel Mutō wanted from him. However, as the Colonel hadn’t spelled it out, the Colonel’s wish didn’t really constitute an order at which he had to obey… and this gave him the freedom to choose not to indulge in such cowardly behaviour.

As a result his work had ended up being made just of observation and paperwork, writing boring reports that didn’t really interest anyone on how things were going in D Agency.

In the beginning, watching the students had been sort of interesting as he was amazed by the things they could do, well, actually he still was… but in the long run he’d grown so distant from them that, to him, they could as well be residents of another country… or another planet, really.

He didn’t approve the way they were trained, the life they were made to live, the attitude they were encouraged to have.

He didn’t understand why they would accept to live such a life. A life in which they would have no true name, nor companions, nor people in whom they could trust, a life without honour or patriotism, a life in which they could believe only in themselves, a life, as the Lieutenant Colonel put it, of pitch-black solitude.

They seemed to respect nothing, not even the Emperor, and looked as if they were taking everything as if it was some sort of game.

Sakuma had no problems to admire their virtues, their abilities, their intelligence, their quick thinking and their resistance to hard training but their way of thinking… he couldn’t understand nor approve it.

Simply put, D Agency wasn’t his place. He knew it and even the students knew it. The only ones who seemed not to realize it were the Colonel Mutō, whom, Sakuma knew, didn’t care about Sakuma beyond how much Sakuma could turn useful to him, and the Lieutenant Colonel, who had gone so far as to assume Sakuma could live that sort of _‘life’_.

Sakuma knew that the man had meant it as a compliment when had asked him if he’d like to try out the spy training… but Sakuma wasn’t cut for it and, although praises in his life had been scarce and he had been touched by this one, ultimately he had no wish to try living a life for which he felt he wasn’t good enough and that he was fundamentally unable to approve.

He was maybe a tad too curious for a soldier and maybe even a little too prone to speak his mind out or to follow his own moral code and not the wishes of his superior officers but, fundamentally, being a soldier was all he was and all he wished to be.

As he reminded himself of this, he moved with practiced ease the Katana cutting through the air with a satisfying Tachikaze sound as he smoothly sliced another imaginary enemy.

Doing Kata early in the morning, when everyone was still sleeping, had become his way to deal with his frustration and put order in his thoughts. It was easier for him to relax when he slid in the familiar pattern of movements he’d been trained to do from a really young age.

That day though, he had ended up exercising himself in the evening as well, after the students had left for their night out.

He was angry at himself for the way he had let himself be dragged into whatever the Lieutenant Colonel had wanted to drag him. He had no idea why the man had pulled out that old story or better, he figured out that he had done it so that Sakuma would have been pushed to play that little game but he didn’t get the sense of it, nor he had appreciated to be reminded of that old incident.

Although the Lieutenant Colonel had been the one who orchestrated the situation, Sakuma knew he was the one to blame as he had willingly played along when he could have very well remained out of it. Not only he’d been given the possibility to refuse and had let Miyoshi persuade him to do it instead, but he shouldn’t have let himself be involved in the students’ little exercise in the first place.

So they had no idea a soldier could and would use a sword to defend himself? Their problem, not his, and it would have remained their problem if Miyoshi, because it was always Miyoshi the one who unfailingly ended up dragging him into things, hadn’t wanted to know his opinion, which had resulted into him wanting to prove his point… which had been a stupid idea, all right.

The Lieutenant Colonel would have set the students straight the day after and then… well, he wasn’t the type to tell someone else _‘told you so’_ but he would have still made his point without having to do anything and…

Really, why had he gotten involved to begin with?

He should have just let the students… the spies be. They didn’t get along well anyway.

In the same way he disapproved of their lifestyle, they did the same of his own. They thought whoever was in the Army or followed the Army code was a moron. They knew they were smarter than him, sharper than him and more knowledgeable than him in many topics. Though their personal data were handled as secret information, it was clear they came from families with a better standing than his own, that they had the chance to visit faraway places he only heard about, that they could study topics that had been denied to him.

He wasn’t jealous, there was who had birth in a rich family and there was who had not, there was who could travel and who could not, and there was who could study and who could not.

It was all a matter of luck and there was no point in getting worked up on the chances that had been denied to him and given to someone else.

He was slightly higher in ranking than them but, apart for that, to them this was probably the only thing in which he looked better than them and, since they didn’t care about rank, this too likely had no value in their eyes, they probably just saw him the same way as the Lieutenant Colonel had seen him when they first met. A spy from the General Staff Headquarters, someone who was against them and wasn’t even bright enough to stand a chance against them.

To be looked down like this was annoying but… the fact he wasn’t at their level was an undeniable truth, one he had to deal with.

Still, it was easier to deal with… well, everything… if he interacted with the students as little as possible. If they didn’t speak with each other they wouldn’t have to constantly clash on values and ideas. He didn’t belong to their world and they didn’t want him in it so he should respect this and stay outside of it.

Considering the way the Lieutenant Colonel was training them… it wasn’t like he had some helpful input to give them, he would only get in the way of their training. Really, he wished he could go back to the Army, where everything would return to make sense and he would know how to move.

When all was said and done, even the frontlines seemed a more interesting prospective than to remain stuck there, doing a useless job at which he’d been assigned merely because the Colonel couldn’t stand the Lieutenant Colonel (but was there someone in the Army who could stand the Lieutenant Colonel? The man only seemed to have enemies in it…) and that didn’t suit him at all.

The General Staff Headquarters could send someone else to fill his role, and have that person deal with watching that weird training, interacting with those odd students and doing spy work for the Colonel. Sakuma wouldn’t mind. Well, no, he actually would mind… such behaviour, even if kept by someone else that wasn’t himself, would still tarnish the Army’s reputation after all but…

He frowned as he realized his growing irritation was now being reflected in his form, making his movements less smooth than they should be. Maybe he should just take a cold shower and go to bed, he mused as he made the Katana spin and realized his wrist felt stiffer than usual. Not good, not good.

 _‘Idiot, you’re not supposed to let yourself go out of focus when practicing,’_ he scolded himself, as he sheathed the sword slower than he used to, realizing his lack of concentration could very well end up with him cutting himself if he weren’t more careful than usual.

“Since you seem to have finished your practice, are you up for a game of poker?” 

The Lieutenant Colonel’s voice startled him as he abruptly turned toward the man. He knew not even Miyoshi and the others could sense the Lieutenant Colonel coming close if he didn’t want to, but it was still unsettling to be caught so completely out of surprise, especially in a moment in which he had just given such a poor show of his own abilities.

“Hum… good evening, Lieutenant Colonel,” he found himself saying. “I apologize for using the place without asking for permission first…” Normally he would go to the roof. The only one dropping on the roof regularly was Tazaki, but he did it only to check on the pigeons and not as early in the morning as Sakuma used to exercise himself. However it was too late to train on the roof, as there was no light there so he had thought…

“It’s fine. You don’t have to ask permission to use this place to train,” the man replied, waving off his concern. “Nobody does.”

“The others are students here. I’m just a Liaison. This training place is for the students to use, not for me,” Sakuma countered, deliberately reminding him that he had declined the man’s offering to become another student.

“You’re still part of this Agency. You can consider yourself authorized to use the place as you prefer, when you prefer,” the Lieutenant Colonel stated. It was a nice offering… but Sakuma wasn’t used to that much freedom and found it uncomfortable. Still he thanked the man for his permission.

“It’s rare to see you around at his hour, Lieutenant Colonel,” he observed then.

“Are you wondering why I’m not out tailing Mutō today?” the man asked, catching up on his unspoken question.

“Not really.”

The Colonel had caught up a cold, which, Sakuma knew, meant he wouldn’t visit Hanabishi or any other Ryotei if he could avoid doing so, and Sakuma was pretty sure the Lieutenant Colonel knew about it as well, though he also was sure he’ll live his life better if he didn’t know how the Lieutenant Colonel found out. The Lieutenant Colonel seemed satisfied with his answer, though.

“It’s just I’m just not used to see you around at this hour,” Sakuma admitted.

He wasn’t as sharp as the others but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that if the man was still here it was because he had something in mind. Sakuma tried to put the pieces together, the _‘homework’_ the Lieutenant Colonel gave to the students, how he pulled out that old story and had him and Kaminaga have a _‘faceoff’_ and the man being here now… but his mind came up blank.

“I think I own you an apology, Lieutenant Colonel. I shouldn’t have intruded in the others’ theory making process,” he ventured to say. The students were supposed to come up with a theory themselves. Sakuma should have stayed put and let them do their work without attempting to correct their theories or give them additional info.

The Lieutenant Colonel made another dismissing gesture, as if, to him, that wasn’t a problem at all.

“Do you know the solution to the case?” he asked him instead, sounding curious.

“Not in the slightest,” Sakuma admitted with a sigh. He had thought at it, he really did, but he came up empty handed. But well, he didn’t expect he would figure out something that the others hadn’t figured yet.

“Then feel free to take part to the guessing work. Or criticize their theories. Or whatever sits well with you, even confuse and mislead them. When they’ll be on work, they’ll have to interact with other people after all, and those will bring their opinions, sometimes to help them, sometimes to cause them troubles. In the end, whatever your interaction with them will be, it will end up helping their training,” the man explained and, while it made sense, Sakuma had the feeling there was more to it that he had been told. “Though, since you felt you shouldn’t have intruded and likely planned to stay put, I wonder what made you change your mind.”

“Miyoshi,” Sakuma admitted with the long suffering sigh one would use when mentioning the Tsunami that destroyed his home. Sakuma really should know better than let himself be persuaded into doing something on Miyoshi’s prompting but… It didn’t help the Lieutenant Colonel seemed to find the thing amusing.

“He asked you to show him how fast one could disarm an adversary with a sword?”

“Something like that.”

It wasn’t a lie; it was just an extremely succinct and interpretative summary. From when he’d been assigned as a Liaison he’d gotten increasingly good at leaving things vague enough for them to be taken in more than one way.

“I see.” Yūki figured how things went anyway and, to him, it wasn’t an unexpected development. He hadn’t really paid much care in deepening the students’ knowledge of Battōjutsu, as it was unlikely they would need it. It was better for them to learn something about European swordsmanship if he wanted them to interact with foreigners. And he knew rather well how they felt about Sakuma. “And, apart for this, have they done something you’re unsure if it needs to be reported?”

The two men exchanged a glance.

In that year Sakuma spent there, observing the students, bound to report the slightest mistake they were to make, that question had become familiar to him.

He remembered when those exchanges between him and the Lieutenant Colonel started.

* * *

The students hadn’t begun training from a week yet and already Miyoshi did something worth reporting it. Okay, he actually only didn’t chose his words carefully, but In the Army one wasn’t allowed to make such mistakes as consequences would be severe… and he didn’t even seem to get what he was doing wrong.

A lesson would do good to him and to all the others and… and his pen paused mid track, as if his hand were unwilling to write what he knew he should report. He frowned.

_‘So? You’re the spy the General Staff Headquarters sent?’_

The memory irritated him. He wasn’t doing spy work. All the students knew he’d been sent there to overlook their training and to report it. He wasn’t sneaking around, peaking at them from behind a corner, he was always in plain view and he always made sure to remind them rules and expected behaviour and let them know what he would allow and what not and they all knew and Miyoshi had been warned twice already and…

…and of course he hadn’t cared. Thought he structured his words to sound polite, Sakuma could see he was looking down at everyone, Sakuma included, and that seemed to have fun in pushing boundaries, testing others so as to see when they would snap. If he’d been an ordinary commissioned Second Lieutenant, Sakuma would have slapped him and be done with it but that boy, like likely everyone else really, came from some public or private university, not from a military academy. He hadn’t been educated to keep the behaviour proper for a soldier and, if Sakuma were to be honest with himself, it looked like the Lieutenant Colonel didn’t want them to learn how a Second Lieutenant should act, so Sakuma had tried to let it slide.

It hadn’t helped in the slightest and now he was honestly fed up. Miyoshi had been warned and hadn’t listened. His problem, not Sakuma’s. He would just report him, as he should have done in the first place and…

…and yet he still couldn’t write the words. Was it just annoyance what was moving him instead than sense of duty? Was he being petty toward the students? No, it was more than that and he knew it.

Everyone else in his place would have reported Miyoshi already. Well, actually they would have reported not just Miyoshi but also a lot of other students as Miyoshi was probably the worst of the bunch but the others were bad as well.

Sakuma knew the Colonel was basically longing for Sakuma to report anything that could be used against the students and…

…and here, Sakuma knew, lied the problem. If he were to rest the matter in Colonel Mutō’s hands, as it would be fair… well, the Colonel wouldn’t be fair with the students. He loathed them without even knowing them and having to deal with them on a daily basis. The Colonel wanted to punish them, not for whatever they could have done, but merely so as to indirectly hit the Lieutenant Colonel.

To Sakuma it was a dirty way to handle his grudge toward the Lieutenant Colonel, one that involved unrelated people. Not that Sakuma liked the Lieutenant Colonel either but… but he wouldn’t take it out on someone else nor he would resort to hit someone under the belt, no matter how much he disliked that person.

He sighed. Maybe Kazu was right and he was really too idealist and foolish. Still…

He rested his forehead in the palm of his hand, feeling at loss. What was he supposed to do with the matter at hands now? He didn’t want to report it but he couldn’t let things slide indefinitely. A soldier should do what he had to do, regardless of his personal opinion over the job. He should just report Miyoshi and let him face the consequences of his actions and…

…and let the Colonel…

He groaned. It wasn’t only unfair, a treacherous part of his mind whispered, it would be such a waste to let the Colonel kick Miyoshi out of the place… because no matter how annoying Miyoshi could be, no matter how untrained he still was, Sakuma could see clearly that he was one of the most promising students the Lieutenant Colonel had… like a fine blade which only needed to be mounted on an appropriate Tsuka… and that Tsuka couldn’t be the standard hilt used by the army, he admitted to himself.

The blade that Miyoshi was could never end up being mounted on a standard military hilt. He was more like… one of those swords, which would get their own name and make it in some catalogue of best swords ever.

And it would be such a pity to stand and watch as Colonel Mutō would take such fine sword and toss it away to let it rust or, even worse, break it on his knee…

For the Colonel, though, the _‘swords’_ of D Agency were the equivalent of what Muramasa blades were to Tokugawa Ieyasu, enemy blades that ought to be destroyed, blades that were rumoured to have been forged by a violent and ill-balanced mind verging on madness, swords that hungered for blood and would impel their warrior to commit murder or suicide. Wasn’t it right to destroy such dangerous blades?

Sakuma sighed again. Maybe the Colonel was right, maybe it would be better if all the… _‘Muramasa’s swords’_ were to be destroyed and yet… yet Sakuma knew that Ieyasu’s actions had been moved more by a grudge than by a real curse placed on those swords and the Colonel was the same as him. Was a grudge a reason good enough to waste such fine swords?

The Lieutenant Colonel’s students whose gifts were so incredible and whose ability to learn was so unparalleled…

Sakuma didn’t like spies. He understood how the Colonel might want to put an end to D Agency. He also would prefer if D Agency would simply stop existing. However, as a Liaison between the Army and D Agency, he believed that his duty wasn’t to put his likes and dislikes first… or the Colonel’s for the matter, but to put the Army’s best interests first.

When he put things in such way he was forced to admit that, no matter how much he tried to compare the situation at hand to situations that were familiar to him in attempt to make sense of them, truth was he didn’t understand how D Agency worked, nor what the Lieutenant Colonel was trying to accomplish with those men. Being here… was like living in a world were rules had been reversed, twisted, changed into something he couldn’t recognize. It was unsettling but he couldn’t let this affect his judgment.

Yamamoto Tsunetomo said that when one couldn’t understand things on his own, he could find the answer he was searching by consulting with others.

Time to go ask to D Agency’s _‘swordsmith’_ for explanations on how his _‘blades’_ worked and hope he would get one that would make sense.

* * *

It was difficult for things to happen without Yūki expecting them in advance. Sakuma showing up in his office to ask if there was an acceptable reason to allow Miyoshi to behave the way he did, was one of the rare occurrences in which Yūki was faced with something he hadn’t been able to predict.

He knew, of course, that the Lieutenant had been at his wits end with Miyoshi and had wondered how Sakuma would decide to deal with the matter. Would he punch the student and be done with him like they did in the Army or would he serve his head on a silver platter to Mutō by reporting his behaviour?

Yūki was prepared for both possibilities, of course, however, as he stared at the sullen soldier in front of him, he was forced to privately admit to himself he hadn’t considered that Sakuma’s excessive sense of fairness would push him to try and see if Miyoshi’s behaviour could be excused.

It was an unsafe decision, of course, as, when all it was said and done, Sakuma was still under Mutō and Mutō wanted him to finds ways to condemn D Agency, not to excuse its students’ behaviour. There would be repercussions for the Lieutenant if Mutō were to know about this. Yūki though, didn’t plan to tattle Sakuma out.

If this was the game Sakuma wanted to play… well, Yūki didn’t mind. Besides, taking time explaining things to Sakuma so as to keep his students out of troubles was probably faster and more interesting than having to deal with that moron that Mutō was.

* * *

With time, it had grown to feel normal for either Sakuma go search for the Lieutenant Colonel to make sure that the students’ behaviour lied in the boundaries of _‘allowed’_ , or for the Lieutenant Colonel to spare him the trouble and come explain things to him himself.

“Today they were quiet enough,” Sakuma summarized. “I mean, I’m sure they still think that the Army is filled with incompetent morons but they hadn’t said it out loud though, so it’s not like I’ve to report it.” Yes, today had been a good day in that aspect.

“So, are you up for a game of poker?” the man asked again. “I’ve heard it’s a game you like to play it.”

It caught Sakuma on surprise the fact that the Lieutenant Colonel knew about his hobby, especially since he’d only played it once here in D Agency, and, truth to be told, back then it wasn’t even poker (although Sakuma had no idea about this), then decided it made no sense to be surprised. The Lieutenant Colonel seemed to be capable to find out everything if he put his mind at it, so more than being surprised about him finding out, it was probably better being surprised about him worrying to find out which hobbies Sakuma had… but well, maybe it was part of the Lieutenant Colonel’s idea of background checking.

“Thank you but, with your permission, I’ll pass,” he replied anyway.

“Afraid to lose?”

“I’m sure I’ll lose. From what I know you cheat much better than Miyoshi and the others, since you single-handedly defeated them all,” Sakuma reminded him. “And you should know Lieutenant Colonel that I don’t care about losing at cards but I can’t stand cheaters.” It probably wasn’t something he should allow himself to say to a superior officer but he had done it already in the past and he wasn’t going to pretend he changed his mind.

“You still think even card games have to be fair and played according to the rules, don’t you?”

“Where’s the fun if they aren’t? It’s winning while moving according to the established rules what makes the game challenging. If it’s not a fair competition… what’s the point?” When he asked the first question, his tone was mostly rhetorical… but by the time he made the second his voice sounded more like he was honestly asking for explanation. Was there a reason why someone should use such dishonourable, coward behaviour in a mere game? Well, he could get how the Lieutenant Colonel might want money for the D Agency, no matter the source, but what about the others? It was just training? Did they have to train constantly? Live constantly in that way? It felt simply too… but the Lieutenant Colonel didn’t answer him.

“Then will you play if I follow your rules?” he asked instead. Sakuma looked at him doubtfully. “Just you and me and no sleights of hand. Would this be _‘fair’_ enough for you to enjoy the game?”

There was a trick in this offering, there **HAD** to be. However with what he knew Sakuma couldn’t figure it out which one… and it made him curious somehow.

“No signed cards? No devices to see my cards either?”

“Just you and me and untouched cards if that’s what worrying you. Interested?”

He’ll regret agreeing, he knew it but…

“All right.”

* * *

The Lieutenant Colonel had to be cheating; there was no other explanation for how he seemed to know which cards Sakuma had. It was like when Miyoshi and the other did it to him, it was like when the Lieutenant Colonel beat them all. Sakuma couldn’t find out how the man did it though.

When the students had been so soundly defeated, he’d assumed the Lieutenant Colonel had just been better at reading the signals they passed among them, but there was just the two of them here. Of course the Lieutenant Colonel might have been lying and he has somehow signed the cards, or there was a device that showed him which cards Sakuma had or he was using some kind of trick but… but somehow he had the feeling the answer was different. He just wasn’t sharp enough to figure it out.

“Okay, I give up, how?” he asked placing his cards on the table. He knew the man would get what he was asking.

“Why don’t you assume I lied to you and I’m using a sleight of hand or something?” The Lieutenant Colonel asked him instead than replying and Sakuma internally sighed. That man wasn’t even trying to deny he was cheating. Oh well, he knew from the beginning that was what he would have done, which was why it felt… fair somehow but still…

“Because, when I suggested it, you looked like you were amused as if I were completely off track. Which you could have faked, I know, but that… didn’t seem to be the game you wanted to play. Tricking me with lies, I mean. You’re asking too much though if you want me to figure out **HOW** you’re tricking me. There’s supposedly no way you should know which cards I have if we go by the idea you aren’t using sleights of hand, devices or signing cards. Or are you saying I was mistaken from the beginning in reading your intentions actually?”

“No, you’ve read them correctly. I’ve played by the rules you set. No devices, no sleights of hand, no signed cards. Just you and me here. A fair challenge by your standards.”

Sakuma frowned. He really couldn’t get it. It seemed fair… but there had to be a trick somewhere, he just couldn’t see where.

“You knew my cards somehow, I’m sure of it. Somehow you found out about them.”

“Then who do you expect told me your cards? It’s just you and me.” Yes, since it was just the two of them no one could have told the Lieutenant Colonel, no one except…

_‘I didn’t express opinions on Kaminaga’s theory at all!’_

_‘You didn’t. You’re just rather transparent, Sakuma-san.’_

He groaned as he buried his face in his hand.

“Am I **THAT** transparent?” he asked, feeling an idiot. The Lieutenant Colonel allowed himself a half smile.

“Normally you are as you hardly bother to hide your thoughts, but I’ve to admit you hold your ground much better when playing poker. I’m not sure the others would manage to read you. Though I guess you still have room for improvement.”

Actually Sakuma was good at keeping a poker face, really. It likely came from having to keep a neutral expression and not showing his thoughts when being ordered by… a certain superior officer of his. Probably his usual adversaries wouldn’t be able to even begin to guess what he had in his hands and even Miyoshi and the others had used signals to figure out. He wasn’t perfect though and therefore Yūki could still read him just fine.

“Will you complain I cheated?” Yūki asked him, amused by the self reproaching and frustrated expression on the other’s face.

“No, you didn’t go against the rules we agreed with,” Sakuma admitted with a sigh. Studying your adversary and figuring out what was in his mind felt fair enough. It’s just that he’d never meet someone as good as the Lieutenant Colonel before. “Is that how you beat the others? You read on their faces the cards they had?”

“Fundamentally. Even if they joined forces against me, they still have many things to learn.”

“Eight against one isn’t really fair,” he observed as he thought back at that game. He had the feeling the students had been solely focused on the Lieutenant Colonel but he hadn’t assumed they would go as far as to strike a deal between the eight of them. Probably the only good signals where the ones behind the Lieutenant Colonel, the ones he couldn’t see and everything else was fake. They should have wanted to beat him so much it hadn’t mattered who were to win, as long as it was one of them. Still, even if they hadn’t played in a fair manner, it felt very much like kids trying to join forces against an adult. It somehow didn’t feel _‘that’_ bad… even though it was. Cheating was cheating, he reminded himself, no excuse allowed.

“Life isn’t fair. You know too,” the Lieutenant Colonel stated, as if reading his thoughts again. “A sword against a gun isn’t fair but your adversary wasn’t going to put down his gun and choose the same weapon you had, or give you the time to pull out your gun, isn’t that true?”

“Maybe so. Still…” There was probably no point in pushing forward his point of view. He doubted the Lieutenant Colonel would change his mind. There were things in which he knew they would never reach an agreement. “Lieutenant Colonel, if I can ask, what was the purpose of today… everything?” he ended up saying, unsure on how to better define it. Why that exercise over that old case? And why pulling out that old story so that the students would feel compelled to test it out? And why now he was playing cards with him?

“I’ve told you already they’ve to learn to make quick decisions and adapt to the ever changing circumstances, didn’t I?”

“They know how to do that already. You know it’s not due to lack of ability that they lost today. If the situation had been different they would have managed just fine.” If it had been the Lieutenant Colonel who had told them about how fast the Major could be… they would have believed it without needing proof… and if it’d been some other adversary that had charged at them… they would have been more cautious. They had been careless merely because had assumed Sakuma wouldn’t be capable enough to pose a threat, nothing more.

“I know. If they lost it was due to lack of faith in your ability, which blinded them to the changing circumstances. There are things you ignore or that you don’t know how to do… but there are also things you know or can do well, even better than them. They overlooked this, failed in analyzing the situation correctly and lost. They undervalued your opinion and ability without bothering to check if their assertion of what you can and can’t do was correct. And if it hadn’t been you, they would have ended up with some broken bones or worse.”

“It’s a little late to teach them modesty. Of course they’ll think they always know better than me when they were trained into having faith only in themselves,” Sakuma pointed out, a reproaching note in his tone. “Besides there’s not really much that I know and they don’t,” he admitted with a sigh.

“They need to have faith in themselves if they want to be successful spies. I’m not planning to teach them to be modest. Just that they shouldn’t assume things. Undervaluing someone is the best basis for failure. Their confidence must be based on their ability to value each situation correctly and to act in the best way possible, not on the random assumption their adversary is inferior to them.”

“I don’t really like much the idea we played out your little script the way you wanted it,” Sakuma admitted, frowning. “But I guess I’m also to blame for having allowed myself to be dragged in.”

He hated the idea he’d played the role of the pawn… but he had to admit he’d been a willing one. He had figured something was up and he had been given the chance to back out. He hadn’t, so he couldn’t really complain if he had ended up being used by the man. Besides… it was for a greater cause. And hadn’t he reminded himself over and over he should stop being so conceited? When all was said and done he was just a soldier. He didn’t really have much power to choose his own destiny… still…

“You’re strict even with yourself, aren’t you? Why didn’t you leave with Miyoshi and the others tonight? There’s no curfew here, and I know Miyoshi is pestering you about going with them basically each evening.”

“Either they’re training and, if that’s the case, I don’t want to get in their way, or they’re out having fun and I don’t want to spoil it. They’ve harsh training days. I guess they’ve a right to a break… or to keep up on exercising if they want to. Though if the reason for Miyoshi’s nagging is they need someone to make fun of, well, they can search for it elsewhere.”

The Lieutenant Colonel chuckled.

“You think he has ill intents?”

“I don’t get what’s in Miyoshi’s head most of the time and the remaining time I’m not sure if I’d like to know what’s in it and so I try my best not to guess,” he admitted, frustrated. “He might be smart but he’s surely the… weirdest of the bunch and that’s saying a lot.” _‘Weirdest’_ was a mild way to put it but Sakuma figured being that way fit with him being a spy so he guessed he shouldn’t complain too much. “I don’t know if Miyoshi has ill intents or not. I just don’t get what he wants from me.” He leaned his forehead in the palm of his hand and stared at the table without really seeing it. “The thoughts of that… Yawarakai-Te sword you’ve forged are beyond my comprehension,” he admitted. Well, at least now he could name a Katana that, to him, was fitting comparison with Miyoshi. Not that it helped any.

To be totally and utterly honest occasionally he had a feeling of what Miyoshi might want from him… but he merely told himself it was all in his head. It was… more convenient that way. For the both of them.

“If it can help, I think the feeling is mutual… though you won’t catch him admitting it either. That’s why he’s always pestering you. He’s trying to figure you out. I thought it would be obvious by now.”

Sakuma looked up at the man, surprised by that unexpected information. No, it wasn’t exactly obvious when the way Miyoshi used to _‘figure him out’_ was to try and trick him into something. Unless…

“He’s trying to figure out how much I can be tricked? I thought that more or less he had already gauged that… I’m clearly not as smart as him but I’m not his rival. Shouldn’t he focus on Kaminaga instead and try to… figure him out?” Sakuma had figured out that there was a minor competition between some of the students to try and show they were the best ones… and Miyoshi and Kaminaga were definitely in it. Well, they were the best ones after all. It made no sense for Miyoshi to waste his time by trying to figure Sakuma out instead than focusing on the others.

“I don’t think Miyoshi knows what exactly he’s trying to figure out. He’s probably wondering it himself. Sure is, he’s having lot of fun while he’s at this. I think you are completely out of his usual ground of experiences.”

“He has a nasty personality, that’s it. I can’t even imagine him having normal friends as a child prior to him being involved in this spy business.”

“Oh? I would have said he knows how to have a charming personality.”

“He knows how to fake a charming personality, you mean. That’s not the way you make real friends, the sort you can talk about everything and fool around and care about and be cared for in return,” he countered firmly. Friends were precious to Sakuma, especially the ones he had from childhood and he couldn’t picture someone living without then… then his gaze fell on the man in front of himself as a thought started to nag him. “You get what I mean, don’t you?”

It was rude to ask directly but, to be honest, he couldn’t picture the Lieutenant Colonel having friends either. As far as he knew, if the Army were to assign an unpopularity prize Sakuma was sure the Lieutenant Colonel would win it without even having to try to… but the Lieutenant Colonel might have a life out of the Army Sakuma knew nothing about… and he probably had taken a break from it from when he’d opened D Agency because, so far, all Sakuma had seen him doing was taking care of the place, nonstop.

“I know what you mean,” the Lieutenant Colonel replied with an amused smile. “And I know you don’t think the students here are friends among them… but there are various types of friendship and some of those types… demand less.”

Sakuma gave him an _‘I’m not buying it’_ gaze but didn’t push the topic. It would be nice to think the students were friends among them… but their interaction to Sakuma felt more like an interaction between casual acquaintances. It lacked closeness, trust, warmth. Probably though, it wasn’t possible for them to open up when they were asked to continuously play a part. The way he saw it… it was a pitiful situation.

Humans were fundamentally social beings. With whom could the students talk when something bothered them? Who would have their back when they were in danger? With whom could they share secrets, confidences and silly things when they weren’t even free to tell each other their true names and were stuck on permanently playing an act? That was no life for a human being.

“What about the others? Are they weird too in your eyes? I’ve heard you went to a Kendō match with Odagiri once, right? What about him?”

Sakuma stared at the man. Then sighed again.

“I’m not even going to ask how you found out. Is there something that happens in this place and that you don’t know of, Lieutenant Colonel?” The man chuckled.

“Not much,” he admitted. “If it can be of some comfort, I don’t know why you didn’t invite Odagiri to come out with you and your friends a second time. Was he a poor company?”

“No, he… he just didn’t look comfortable. Maybe he didn’t like to be between Army soldiers… no, that wasn’t it, it’s just… it looked like he felt out of place. And maybe the other students wouldn’t have liked him to come with us. So I felt it was for the best to let him be. Only sometimes it looks like he’s not really fitting well with the others either. I mean… it’s not like the other look like closer friends but… well, it’s just a feeling,” he admitted. He couldn’t quite explain it. Odagiri seemed close to Fukumoto and seemed capable to fit with the others and yet… somehow he didn’t seem to fit. Not fully. As if he were different from them. And it got even more marked when he had to interact with Miyoshi, Kaminaga, Hatano or Jitsui.

“You’ve a peculiar way to worry about them.”

“I’m not worried about them at all. They’re overconfident brats and it would do them a world of good to get their faces smacked in the ground for once… but they’re smart enough they’ll pull out of troubles on their own… which is probably bad because, as I said, it wouldn’t hurt if they were to end in troubles here and there so as to teach them a little lesson. Anyway there’s no reason to worry about them, really.”

It didn’t come out the way he wanted it but Sakuma had no idea how to put it better. Besides he didn’t think it was correct to say he _‘worried’_ for the Lieutenant Colonel’s students. Skipping the fact they weren’t really close enough to him to inspire such feelings (actually, considering their behaviour, quite the opposite), Sakuma believed they were capable enough not to need him worry over them.

Still, when he thought at it, he was forced to realize their position was… peculiar, to say the least. The Colonel had wanted D Agency to fail right from day one. Sakuma could understand why, could see how the training methods there created people that clashed with all an Army soldier strived to be…

…but he couldn’t stand to the use of underhanded tactics. If the place had to fail… then it would have to fail for its own mistakes, nothing else.

Sakuma also knew that if that place had to fail… it would be the students who would mostly pay the price for it. If the place were to be closed down… they would be handled in the same way as the students who had resigned or hadn’t managed to complete their studies there. They would all get a one-way ticket for the front lines.

Sakuma had friends that had been sent there and that, occasionally managed to write back, and knew how it worked. Although he was all for dying fighting for his country and wouldn’t mind being sent on the front lines even right then… the Lieutenant Colonel’s students didn’t share his views or his lifestyle.

The frontlines weren’t a merry place to be and the soldiers allocated there would likely not welcome with open arms boys trained to be spies… and even if by some remote reason they would be willing to do so… Sakuma was pretty sure the Colonel would take steps to avoid it… merely out of spite, merely due to the petty grudge he held against the Lieutenant Colonel.

Sakuma could complain for hours about the students but… but he couldn’t shake out of his mind the idea that abandoning them to the fate the Colonel wanted for them… simply wasn’t fair. Not that he could do much in that regard, apart making sure at least he would be fair with them and wouldn’t get in their way. The rest… it was up to them and to the Lieutenant Colonel, really.

“With your permission I guess I should call it a night. Thank you for the game, I enjoyed it,” he admitted, getting up. It had never been a matter of winning or losing to him after all. If the only reason for which the Lieutenant Colonel had won was that he was better than him… well, he was fine with it.

“Likewise,” Yūki replied. Sure, Sakuma didn’t truly prove to be a terrible challenge for him but, in his own way, he was an interesting player. Yūki was more experienced than Miyoshi and the others, and it was easier for him to understand the Lieutenant, still, here and there, Sakuma could come up with things that Yūki hadn’t anticipated. “You should accept Miyoshi’s invitations and spend a night outside once or twice. Some fun would do good to you and interacting with the students instead than just watching them would work much better to understand what’s in their mind…”

“I’ll pass. I might get scarred for life if I were to finally find out what’s in their minds,” he commented shaking his head, an amused smile on his lips. “Goodnight, Lieutenant Colonel.” He didn’t salute him, even if the temptation was always present and, after hearing the man wishing him good night as well, he left.

* * *

The dormitory was still empty as the others usually came back way later. Sakuma didn’t mind. He’d grown used to… function in a way that was different from everyone else in the Agency. It was not he liked it; it was just the way it was.

As he lied down on his bed, the whole story of the Major’s death came to his mind again. By now the others should have probably figured out something. Sakuma mentally went through what he knew… but no solution came up.

The man had been killed in his office, either without attempting to defend himself or without getting the chance to do it and without anyone noticing and the murderer had simply disappeared from the place. After a quick investigation everything was put under silence… likely because it shouldn’t have been possible for a murderer to reach the man, kill him without being heard and then disappear. This whole fact proved a serious lack in the security, a lack that made no sense since actually the security of the place was good.

He frowned as he tried to piece what he knew together, to then forcefully push the whole matter away from his mind. It wasn’t his place to solve this one. The Army didn’t want this one solved. Yet…

* * *

**JJ's Notes:**

**1\. Sakuma and his daily routine:** The anime only shows Sakuma going to bed early… however we see he won’t have problem staying out late when he’ll investigate if Mutō went on Hanabishi. I’m assuming Sakuma is going on bed early and also getting up early but, only unless he has a work related reason to do the opposite.

 **2\. Mutō’s attitude toward the students:** In the novel Mutō basically tells Sakuma to report to him all the students do, claiming that if they’ll make one mistake they’ll be finished… and implying if they don’t make mistakes a situation that can be judged _‘a mistake’_ will need to be created.

 **3\. Sakuma’s job at the D Agency:** In Ep 1, when the students meet Sakuma in a corridor, he’s carrying some sort of notebook or register. As all we see him to do prior to bringing the file on Gordon’s investigation to Yūki is standing beside Yūki observing the students I take that his work was basically reduced to observing and reporting what was going on.

 **4\. Tachikaze (太刀風 “Sword Wind”):** The wooshing sound a Katana makes cutting through the air. Note that from the way the Tachikaze sounds one can tell if the sword is properly shaped and the technique of the user good enough, so it’s not just some random noise the sword makes. As Sakuma is good with swords, the Tachikaze he makes using his sword sounds in the right way and therefore is _‘satisfying’_.

 **5\. Yūki and the Army:** Yūki seems to be definitely not popular in the Army. In the novel he confirms no one of the higher up in it likes him.

 **6\. Mutō, Hanabishi and the other Ryotei:** the Ryotei (旅亭 “Inn”) are Japanese style inns. Mutō uses to visit them to drive himself drunk and spend a fun time with geisha, especially when he’s angry. When Sakuma was his attendant he had to accompany him. It seems in one of them, Hanabishi, there’s Mutō’s favourite geisha… and here it’s also were Yūki caught him tattling military secrets to the geisha while being drunk.

 **7\. Battōjutsu (抜刀術 “Art of drawing out the sword”):** A combative quick-draw sword technique. It’s sort of the old version/name of Iaijutsu (居合術 which can be **VERY LOSELY** translated as “Art of being ready to answer to an attack”).

 **8\. European swordsmanship:** The Joker Game The Animation shows that the spies were trained in the European style of fencing instead than in the Japanese one. Possibly they were also trained in the Japanese one but I’m assuming Yūki would put more focus on them being trained in the European one due to him planning to have them work outside of Japan.

 **9\. Kazu:** or better Mikoshiba Kazuya is just an OC. Although we know he had them, we’ve no info on who Sakuma’s friends from childhood and from the army were, so I had to make up a _‘best friend’_ for Sakuma. Sorry about this but well, it couldn’t be helped as all the sources implies Sakuma had friends but left them unnamed.

 **10\. Kamakura blades:** It seems that the blades forged during the Kamakura period (1185–1333) were the best blades ever made for the Katana.

 **11\. Tsuka (柄 “Hilt”):** It’s the hilt or handle of a Katana; made of wood and wrapped in the Samekawa (鮫皮), which is usually made of ray or shark skin.

 **12\. Sengo Muramasa (千子 村正):** He was a famous swordsmith of the Muromachi period (1336 to 1573) whose blades were rumoured to be demonic cursed blades that creates bloodlust in those who wield it. Since enemies of Tokugawa Ieyasu used them to slaughter his allies and even wound him with one of them, he forbade people from using them. It’s sort of ironic that Sakuma would compare the D Agency students to Muramasa’s swords as their motto is the exact opposite of the effect a Muramasa sword was rumoured to have on his owner… though at that point in time Sakuma didn’t know yet. The irony is double if one thinks that Miyoshi actually set Sakuma up for a _‘Harakiri show’_.

 **13\. Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川 家康):** He was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which effectively ruled Japan from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

 **14\. Yamamoto Tsunetomo (山本 常):** Yes, gold star to who remembers him from past notes as he’s the writer of the **‘Hagakure’** (葉隠). And Sakuma is referring to this quote from the **‘Hagakure’** : _‘To hate injustice and stand on righteousness is a difficult thing. Furthermore, to think that being righteous is the best one can do and to do one's utmost to be righteous will, on the contrary, bring many mistakes. The Way is in a higher place than righteousness. This is very difficult to discover, but it is the highest wisdom. When seen from this standpoint, things like righteousness are rather shallow. If one does not understand this on his own, it cannot be known. There is a method of getting to this Way, however, even if one cannot discover it by himself. This is found in consultation with others. Even a person who has not attained this Way sees others from the side. It is like the saying from the game of go: "He who sees from the side has eight eyes." The saying, "Thought by thought we see our own mistakes," also means that the highest Way is in discussion with others.’_

 **15\. Sakuma and poker:** The novel says Sakuma’s only hobby was playing poker. Also Sakuma is actually good at keeping a poker face during the poker/joker game, showing what goes on his mind only when it’s not dangerous to do so… and he could keep a neutral expression that didn’t betray his thoughts at all through all his whole discussion with Mutō at the end of the **‘Joker Game’** story (okay, in the Anime he allowed himself a quick smile, he didn’t do it in the novel or the **‘D no Maō’** manga)

 **16\. Yūki, poker and cheating:** In a strip drawn by Miwa Shiro Yūki challenges his students at a game of cards and completely defeats them all. I’m assuming Sakuma knows about this and figured out that it means Yūki is better than them all at cheating.

 **17\. Yawarakai-Te:** According to a legend, the Yawarakai-Te (柔らかい手 "Tender Hands") was a sword Masamune (正宗), Japan's greatest swordsmith who lived during the last part of the Kamakura Period (1288–1328), forged which was capable to decide what to cut and therefore not to cut through that which is innocent and undeserving. Always according to the legend, this sword had to compete in a contest with Muramasa's Juuchi Yosamu (十千夜寒 "10,000 Cold Nights"), a sword that cut everything that passed its way and that, due to it, was defined a blood thirsty, evil blade, as it does not discriminate as to who or what it will cut. In truth Masamune and Murasama never competed as they didn't live in the same time period and the whole story is just a legend.

 **18\. Sakuma, Odagiri and Kendō:** As said in the previous chapter I’ve assumed Sakuma and Odagiri went to see a Kendō match together.

 **19\. Odagiri and the others:** Although Odagiri clearly fit with the D Agency boys much better than Sakuma, he still has problems fitting. I’d assumed that Sakuma, that spend most of his time on D Agency observing them, had ended up noticing it. Oh, in regard to him having more troubles interacting with Miyoshi, Kaminaga, Hatano or Jitsui that’s due to their interaction in **‘XX Double Cross’**.

 **20\. The whole frontlines matter:** **‘D no Maō’** showed that one of Sakuma’s friends was sent to the frontlines. I assumed it’s probably logic that, in that time period, more than one of Sakuma’s friends ended up being sent there. As for the D Agency boys in the novel we learn that who leaves D Agency either because he fails or because he wants to drop out is sent to the frontlines. Hence Sakuma thinks that if Mutō were to manage to close the place all the boys would end up getting an one way only ticket for the warfront.


	4. Chapter 4

Miyoshi, Sakuma observed as his gaze fell on him, was in a poor mood. The blow he received the day before should still hurt morally but also physically he figured, considering how uncomfortable he looked when moving his arm, and it probably hadn’t helped Miyoshi had refused to take care of it properly.

Sakuma wondered how he should interpret that stubbornness. Normally Miyoshi would look after his own wounds. Was there another reason to his refusal to nurse that one beyond the fact Sakuma told him to see to it? He had no idea. Figuring out Miyoshi’s thoughts was really too complicate for him.

Still, as he saw that Miyoshi was again the last one to remain in the dormitory, still busy fixing his own appearance, Sakuma felt tempted to remind him that morning too about how he shouldn’t take a lifetime combing his hair. He only restrained himself just because it seemed that morning the other was having problems doing it. Sakuma frowned. Yes, Miyoshi was definitely still suffering the effects of yesterday blow. Sakuma wasn’t going to apologize. He had warned him to wear protections and Miyoshi didn’t. His bad.

Besides didn’t he always think it would do good to them if the students got smacked here and there as it would normally happen to any other member of the Army? Yes, he would definitely do good to them, it would definitely teach them something. So why was he feeling guilty? It made no sense.

“Just leave that as it is for a day,” he found himself saying to Miyoshi before he could stop himself. “No one will care.”

“ ** _I_** will care,” Miyoshi snapped shooting him a smouldering glare. Of course since there was no other person whose opinion Miyoshi valued more than himself (except maybe the Lieutenant Colonel’s… and Sakuma wasn’t so sure about it) insisting was a lost battle and yet…

“Yes, but today… you aren’t doing a great work with it,” he ended up saying lamely, which was more considerate than usual but still the wrong thing to say as Miyoshi merely took it as a jab to his own ability instead than Sakuma’s own brand of concern for Miyoshi’s well being. Not that Sakuma was really good at expressing it though.

“Oh? You think you’ll be better than me at this, Sakuma-san? Here, show me,” Miyoshi said, tone dripping with sarcasm, offering him the comb and he felt some sort of satisfaction when Sakuma-san looked at him as if he were thinking he’d gone out of mind. Really, that day he wasn’t in the mood for Sakuma-san’s complains about his speed in getting ready. He’d even slept poorly! For once the man could try and read the mood and let him be, couldn’t he?

However, when he was about to pull back his hand, thinking he’d just won that round, Sakuma-san slipped from it the comb.

“It’ll be better if you sit down,” he warned him in a sulking tone.

That was one of those rare instances in which Miyoshi had to personally admit someone had surprised him greatly. He’d never though Sakuma-san would take up his offer so now… what? Still, he had been trained not to reveal his own feelings, so he hurried to cover up his surprise and confusion by sitting down elegantly as if things were going exactly according to his plans. Besides, who knew, this could prove to be interesting… or not.

To be honest he didn’t really like the idea of letting Sakuma-san handle his hair since the man wasn’t usually paying much care to his own but… well, Miyoshi wasn’t going to be too obvious about it.

“Do you have an idea of how to do it? Because I’d like to keep my hair, thank you very much,” he stated in what was meant to sound like a bored tone, not looking at the man. Actually okay, he was a bit anxious about the whole thing. It wasn’t like he normally trusted this sort of tasks to other people. Really, this had the potential to backfire tremendously and… and Sakuma-san didn’t move at first nor replied, then…

“I think I have an idea how to do it,” he said simply, moving closer. Miyoshi mentally sighed and prepared for the worst, planning to stop him before he’ll make any damage. Sakuma-san though… was gentle and careful the way Miyoshi hadn’t expected he could be. He’d only seemed a bit confuse when he realized how tangled Miyoshi’s hair were, then began working the comb through them slowly, although he seemed a bit exasperated.

“How can it be so tangled? Whatever did you do with it?” the man ended up asking him. Miyoshi shrugged.

“I didn’t do anything. This is just how it is each morning. Welcome to my world.”

There was silence for a moment then…

“All right. I won’t complain anymore when you spend hours combing your hair,” he conceded… though he was half sure that Miyoshi wasted on it a bit more than necessary. But well, probably, after all the work it seemed to require, maybe he felt like he was allowed to spend some extra time to make sure it’ll also look nice. “You should probably cut it shorter. It’ll be easier to handle.”

“We aren’t supposed to have military haircuts, Sakuma-san, have you forgotten?” Miyoshi reminded him irritably. “Besides closely cut hair doesn’t suit me at all.”

“As I’ve never seen you with a military haircut, I’ll take your word for it.”

That acceptance… felt weird. Miyoshi had expected Sakuma-san to insist on the charm of a military haircut, or on the uselessness of looking nice instead… he had just let it be. And he wasn’t rudely pulling at his hair as he combed them. No, he was being very gentle… and it was starting to look very soothing and… intimate somehow. When was the last time someone else combed his hair? He had been a mere child and…

“Where did you learn to do this?” he asked, mostly to distract himself from those memories but also with a tad of curiosity.

“When my mother got sick someone had to take care of her and her hair was longer than yours. Not so tangled through.” There was a fond note in the man’s voice as he talked about his mother. Miyoshi knew that the woman was currently dead but that was all there was in the official documents. Now that he’d hear the man talking about her, he figured he should have loved her and, possibly, she had loved him back. Miyoshi wondered if Sakuma-san came from that sort of loving, doting families that encourage you and cheer on your successes, then decided he wasn’t really interested in knowing about it. So, he considered commenting instead on how _‘domestic’_ Sakuma-san could be despite being a soldier then decided against it. No point in teasing the man right then, while he was being useful and… well, considerate. Maybe even nice. Really, he didn’t feel like arguing with the man right then. So… there was something else he wanted to try.

“Sakuma-san. Since you’re our army and swords expert…”

“I’m what?” Sakuma-san cut him, sounding half confused, half surprised.

“You’re the one among us that knows the most about both, aren’t you?” Miyoshi countered patiently. Well, of course Miyoshi was putting Yūki-san aside, but Miyoshi couldn’t really go ask him what he was planning to ask to Sakuma-san. “Then it makes sense to consider you as such,” he went on without waiting for confirmation.

“I’m not sure I’ll like where this discussion is leading.”

“Someplace very simple. We came up with a different theory yesterday. I’d like you to listen to it and tell me if you think this too _‘wouldn’t work’_.” Sakuma looked at him warily.

“Where’s the catch?”

“Why there should be a catch?” No reply but Miyoshi was sure Sakuma-san thought the answer was obvious enough. Well, Sakuma-san couldn’t really be blamed for being wary of him although, for once, Miyoshi wasn’t planning anything terrible. “I’d just like to be absolutely sure our theory is right, okay? We already have made fools of ourselves in front of Yūki-san yesterday. I don’t like the idea of repeating the experience.” Well, to be honest, Sakuma-san might have not liked what Miyoshi had in mind anyway but Miyoshi still believed it wasn’t anything the man couldn’t take. Actually it could be a learning experience for him.

“Just this?” Sakuma-san insisted. Miyoshi arched one of his eyebrows.

“Which other sort of secret dark intention do you think I could have?” In insight it sounded almost funny how the man had learnt on being cautious. Sakuma-san didn’t reply to his question.

“If I listen… will you give me five minutes of your time in which you’ll do what I say?” he said instead.

A deal? Well, that was unexpected, Sakuma-san wasn’t the kind who’ll try to make deal with them. Besides… what might want him to do in five minutes? Should he be the one who needed to be cautious? He didn’t let Sakuma-san realize his hesitation though.

“Fine by me. So… do we have a deal?” he asked, showing him an amused smile. Probably Sakuma-san’s sense of honour wouldn’t allow him to demand anything… too bad from Miyoshi. Besides Odagiri said the man had no harmful intentions toward them. Time to put Odagiri’s theory to test. If worse came to worst, well Miyoshi was sure he could handle it… and make sure to pay Sakuma-san back. With interests.

“We’ve a deal. Though you know I’m not **_really_** an… _‘Army or a sword expert’_ , as you put it,” the man reminded him stressing the word _‘really’_.

“You know more than us so I’ll make of it the best I can,” Miyoshi replied dismissively. “Anyway, you said and proved that the Major could have successfully used his sword to defend himself, right?”

“Right. It makes no sense he didn’t,” Sakuma confirmed. He had played various possible scenarios in his mind, using Kaminaga’s theory as reference because it seemed solid… but they all crashed against that point. Why didn’t the Major defend himself?

“So let’s accept that, if he had had a sword, he would have used it and won. What if he hadn’t had a sword? That’s the theory in question, now.”

“What do you mean if he hadn’t had his sword? Why shouldn’t he have had it?”

“Surely soldiers aren’t glued to the swords, are they? They could remove it from their attire here and there. If the Major was caught while he wasn’t wearing his sword, there was no way he could use it to defend himself,” Miyoshi explained in an indifferent tone, as if what he was saying was really logic and obvious and Sakuma was being dumb for not catching it up. Well, Miyoshi always seemed to look at the world as if it were below him and everyone else was a dunce which was so annoying… However, Sakuma reasoned, he had asked his opinion on the matter. Maybe deep down Miyoshi wasn’t being so haughty as he sounded. Oh well, let’s ignore his tone and see where this would lead.

“Soldiers can put down their swords, yes, but you aren’t giving me a single good reason why he shouldn’t have worn it,” he countered, realizing how Miyoshi’s theory seemed to be missing the basis and how this wouldn’t have been like him. “What is it you’ve in mind, Miyoshi?” he asked in a suspicious tone. Of course the discussion would lead nowhere good, what had he been thinking? There was no way in the world Miyoshi would toss a random idea, without having a careful plan behind it.

“You’re the Army and swords expert. You tell me. Why would he have removed his sword?” The tone was smooth and teasing now and Sakuma was sure that… brat (because yes, sometimes in Sakuma’s mind Miyoshi was no better than an annoying brat) was smirking. So was this the game they were playing now? Did Miyoshi want to see if Sakuma could figure things out? Really, he was the worst of the whole bunch.

“The easiest answer is to clean it… but now that I think at it, when they found his corpse, he was wearing his sword so this is a moot point…” …but there was no way Miyoshi didn’t know this already so why was he asking… “Wait, you think they had him wear his sword after he was killed? Why would his killer waste time having him wear his sword back again?” Unless somehow the killer had managed to trick him into removing it prior to entering in the room and this could give clues on the killer’s identity, Sakuma can’t really think of…

“Why the killer? Surely there are other people who could have done it,” Miyoshi’s words cut his line of thoughts.

“An accomplice? But when… no, hold on, you’re thinking the Army compromised the crime scene! That’s idiotic, why should they do it?!” he protested, outraged. Truth to be told, he knew it could and had happened… but he still didn’t like the way Miyoshi was going at it. He always had to think the worst of the Army, as if nothing good in it could be found, as if the people in it were worth nothing, as if they had no abilities or morals. It angered Sakuma to no end, to the point he ended up defending the Army even when he knew it had its own faults… but well, he was the Army Liaison. He was supposed to defend the Army… or so he told himself.

Miyoshi had known Sakuma-san wouldn’t like his suggestion and had sort of expected him to end up pulling his hair in his indignation, but the man just stopped his motion. It seemed Sakuma-san, even when enraged, wouldn’t resort to petty retaliations. Maybe he just wouldn’t find them _‘honourable’_.

“That’s the question,” Miyoshi replied calmly, as if Sakuma-san hadn’t just lost it. Sakuma-san got offended rather easily if he believed the honour of the Army was involved, which was pretty silly in Miyoshi’s opinion, but he thought that if he were to make sure to sound logic enough, the man would listen. “The whole investigation was concluded pretty quickly from what Yūki-san said, wasn’t it? Even if they found nothing. The truth is something happened so the Army didn’t want investigations to be carried along. What if the Major’s sword was involved in this _‘something’_ and therefore they had been required to alter the crime scene so as to cover up its involvement?”

There was a pause of silence which, Miyoshi knew, should mean that Sakuma-san was considering what Miyoshi had said. After all Sakuma-san should know the Army was filled with people who didn’t play according to the rules, his superior officer being one of them. Surely he could consider this time as well the Army might not have played fair, couldn’t he?

Miyoshi waited patiently, then heard Sakuma-san exhaling slowly and resuming to work on the knots on his hair.

“Fine. Let’s assume the Army had its own reasons to claim the Major was wearing his sword when he wasn’t. Do I want to know which could they have been? Because it surely wasn’t to cover up he was cleaning it. You shouldn’t do it at work but that’s not big enough they’ll care enough to cover it up,” Sakuma pointed out, his tone betraying how, even though he was willing to listen, he was quietly fuming. Yes, as Miyoshi had guessed he knew sometimes people in the Army didn’t respect the rules but he didn’t like how Miyoshi seemed to enjoy pointing it out, as if it was something everyone in the Army would do, as if it felt good to toss mud on everyone in the Army. “Either split out what’s in your mind, Miyoshi, so I can properly chew you out for coming up with such ideas or drop it altogether. Why would the Army cover up the Major wasn’t wearing his sword?”

Of course Miyoshi had his own theory, but it would be detrimental to his cause if he were the one to say it out loud, especially considering Sakuma-san was already so set against it. He wanted to lead Sakuma-san to reach his same conclusion so as to avoid useless fighting and just have a confirmation to his theory. Knowing Sakuma-san though, maybe he needed an extra hint in that regard, to help him figure things out without Miyoshi spelling them out for him.

“I wouldn’t know, really. In which sort of activity the Major could have been engaged so that it caused him to… strip himself of his sword and that the Army might not want others to find out?” Sakuma frowned at how his tone implied not only that Miyoshi knew but that Sakuma should have figured out already and... something else Sakuma couldn’t quite guess yet.

“I said to stop beating around the bush with this stripping matter and…” he began, annoyed, then it dawned on him what the other was alluding. “No. There’s no way…” He shook his head. “Simply no, that… insinuating something like this is…” This was something that made sense yes, but it was… well, of course the Army would cover it if it had happen which he couldn’t have because it would be completely… “I refuse to listen to you as you make this sort of baseless accusations!” he stated angrily.

Miyoshi sighed. It’s not like he hadn’t expected this sort of reaction.

“You say so but you thought it was possible, didn’t you? You think it’s possible, you’re just rejecting this theory because you don’t like it. That’s hypocrisy, Sakuma-san.”

Sakuma seriously considered if he’ll be punished for strangling one of the Lieutenant Colonel’s best students, if not the best of them all. Probably the Lieutenant Colonel wouldn’t like it, but maybe the satisfaction of getting rid of such a pain in the ass as Miyoshi could be would be worth the Lieutenant Colonel’s displeasure and actually Colonel Mutō might even promote him for that… which actually wasn’t how he wanted to get a promotion but still…

“That’s why you didn’t want to speak it out, isn’t it? It has to come from me so you could wave it in front of my nose. If this isn’t the dirtiest trick…” Miyoshi didn’t try to deny it.

“Yūki-san said the Major had a lover and nothing more,” he reminded him composedly, trying to mimic the calm tone Yūki-san used when discussing with Sakuma-san. Yūki-san could get Sakuma-san to listen even when he was telling him things Sakuma-san found morally questionable so Miyoshi should be able to do the same. Of course Yūki-san had on his side the fact he was higher in ranking compared to Sakuma-san and, despite this, not even Yūki-san reached a perfect score but Miyoshi wasn’t going to let technicalities like these to stop him.

“Sakuma-san, for Yūki-san to mention the Major’s lover, well, this has to be relevant. The Major had his lover snuck in and, when he was murdered, he was caught while he was… busy spending time with her.” He deliberately and clearly changed the sentence he had in mind into a tamer one, so as to make easily discernible he wasn’t trying to aggravate Sakuma-san, just to expose his theory. The man would be of no use to him if he was too angry to reason things out. “Sakuma-san, you know not everyone in the Army lives with your same moral code and probably you even heard stories of people who did things like that. Can you honestly tell me, without a sliver of doubt, that the Major surely won’t do this? That he was an exemplar member of the Army? If you can, I’ll take your word for it and admit to Yūki-san we couldn’t think anything better. However, if my theory works, I want you to say it out loud,” he challenged. Let’s see how far Sakuma-san would go to cover up for the Army or if he’ll be honest even if he didn’t like it.

“You… you are…” What Sakuma-san said next, tone dripping with frustration, was definitely not included into polite language but Miyoshi figured the man had to vent in some way and so he tolerated it.

“Maybe so. Am I right or not?” he pressed. He heard the other exhaling loudly which, he knew, was Sakuma-san’s way to keep his temper in check.

“You…” Sakuma began, still livid, then trailed off. As much as it made him furious, Sakuma knew it was possible and it made sense. He didn’t want Miyoshi’s theory to be true as he knew Miyoshi had came up with it also due to the contempt in which he held the Army but… but Sakuma had nothing to disprove it beyond that a honourable soldier of the Imperial Army wouldn’t indulge in… romantic rendezvous on working hours in his office none the less! He tried not to picture in his mind the scene because it wasn’t something he wanted to think about, but his imagination got the best of him. As much as Sakuma didn’t want to insult the Major’s memory, he knew he didn’t have it in him to claim the man was an exemplary soldier who would have never engaged in shameful acts. Lies just weren’t his things. He felt disgust rise as the scene played in his mind, that wasn’t how a Major of the Imperial Army should act and he shouldn’t even do so much as to think the man being capable of it and…

“Well?” Miyoshi prodded, doing his best to keep satisfaction and teasing out of his tone. He understood it might be a little hard for Sakuma-san to admit the members of his precious Army hardly obeyed the Army’s rules, but did he have to take the whole day in order to do so? Really, the man had to learn to see the truth about the Army, Miyoshi was merely doing him a favour. “Sakuma-san. Am I right or not?”

“You’re wrong,” Sakuma-san said, slowly. Miyoshi swallowed his annoyance and focused on Sakuma-san’s tone. It was speculative, thoughtful. He wasn’t saying it just out of some moral code or some belief he had been indoctrinated with. Evidently Sakuma-san had actually realized something that disproved Miyoshi’s theory and, while this wasn’t the outcome Miyoshi had hoped for, well, it could still turn into something interesting. “You’re wrong, I think,” the man repeated, sounding as if he was trying to make sense of things and failing. “It doesn’t add up. Unless there’s something else in your theory you aren’t telling me?” 

Something missing? What was it?

“Care to clarify?”

“How did his lover got there? Do you have an explanation for this?”

“He let her in? It’s not that difficult. I doubt he needed a secret entrance or something. He probably said something along the lines of her being with him for interrogation or something and…”

“No. That zone is off limit for civilians. That whole floor is off limit for civilians. Even if you’re in the Army they check if you’re allowed in before letting you pass. There are no exceptions. A woman wouldn’t manage to slide in without anyone noticing. They wouldn’t have let her in,” Sakuma-san countered. He sounded thoughtful but firm, not boastful. Miyoshi knew this meant that, even though Sakuma-san clearly didn’t like Miyoshi’s theory and definitely didn’t want it to be true, he wasn’t speaking like that merely to be contrary. The man was giving the thing serious thinking but Miyoshi couldn’t help but think Sakuma-san was being biased anyway, thinking too highly of the Army’s security and respect for rules.

“He was a Major,” he insisted. “Even if there were people on guard if he’d ordered them they might have not felt up to cross him and…”

“He was **just** a Major. You’re thinking to a big shoot and, for a moment, I did too. That sort of thing though might work if you’re the highest in ranking in the place… but there was who outranked him on that same floor. In such conditions, even the most compliant and accommodating soldiers would have been wary to obey him if he were to order them to break rules, and they wouldn’t have dared to accept bribes. Also chances for the Major to end up being reported or caught would increase way too much for this to be safe. It makes no sense for him to try to pull this out with such huge chances of failure and, honestly, I can’t see him managing to succeed.”

Sakuma wondered why, if a side of him felt relief at the idea that such thing hadn’t happened, the other felt slightly annoyed. As much as he disliked Miyoshi’s theory… well, now that it had safely turned unlikely, he could privately admit it had been an interesting idea and…

“If you really want to push this offensive idea of yours forward, find a way to have the woman reach the place getting around the vigilance,” he found himself saying, which was bad because really, he shouldn’t encourage Miyoshi in such ideas but… but a side of him was more interested by the mystery the case presented than by the moral problem the solution presented. He actually wanted to discuss it… he would just have preferred if Miyoshi weren’t to propose such outrageous solutions.

“If he were to disguise her as a soldier… would it work?” It seemed weak and unsatisfying as a suggestion but Miyoshi still believed they were on something. He wasn’t quite sure on what. Sakuma-san had shoot his theory down and, as irking as it had been, he believed the man had given him a reliable answer. It hadn’t been a stupid idea to get him involved. He seemed to have much more inside information on how those places worked than the ones Yūki-san had given them… and Sakuma-san too seemed to think they were on something after all, since he weren’t simply telling him to get rid of such idea despite loathing it.

Sakuma-san seemed to ponder on his suggestion, for once without claiming he found insulting how Miyoshi insinuated the Major could consider dressing his lover as a soldier of the Imperial Army. It was interesting in a way, as he finally seemed more engrossed in finding a solution than in the morality of the situation. Miyoshi briefly wondered which sort of person Sakuma-san would have been hadn’t he been conditioned so much by the beliefs pressed upon him. Maybe would he have been more like them? Was this why Yūki-san considered asking him to join them? Because deep down he was like them, only his potential had been tainted and crippled by military indoctrination? Miyoshi had no idea but he was curious to find out.

Actually, to be honest, Sakuma wasn’t so engrossed in the discussion he had missed the jab at the Army… he just decided to postpone scolding Miyoshi about it. Sure, he was the Army’s liaison and higher in ranking than Miyoshi and shouldn’t allow him to do such speculations but… but a side of Sakuma that respected and admired the other’s intelligence wanted to see how far the other could get. Could Miyoshi really find a way to solve this?

“The Major was a big and tall man…” he said eventually remembering how the Lieutenant Colonel had described him. “I’m not sure a woman who’ll fit one of his spare uniforms would be worth of running such risks… but well, I don’t really know which were his tastes… it’ll be a little more complicate if he were to have to get an uniform from some other source… but I guess it’s feasible… and vigilance could be tricked into letting her in if he were to claim she were an authorized soldier… provided he’ll trick them good…” Sakuma paused, annoyed by how it seemed possible, then tried to envision the scene in his mind, searching for loopholes. “I think… it can theoretically be pulled out if she disguises herself very well,” he admitted, though his admission lacked confidence.

“It’s not so unlikely to find a woman who knows how to disguise herself as a man and yet you don’t sound so sure it’ll work though. Why?” It didn’t help Miyoshi wasn’t feeling sure of it himself. Somehow it felt as if they were pulling at it too much.

“It seems… a tad too complicate,” Sakuma tried to summarize, voicing Miyoshi’s feelings. “At this point this isn’t a casual tryst, this is carefully planned… finding a uniform, having her disguise as a soldier, maybe even bribing someone so he won’t look at her too carefully… honestly I’ve hard time believing it was worth it. Even if we go with your idea that the Major was morally questionable, one just doesn’t risk his career to spend time in his office with a woman with whom he could have met up that same night in a safer situation. And then, while this complicate plan for a quick secret meeting was taking place, someone also disguised himself as a soldier, snuck in the place and conveniently killed the Major while… he wasn’t wearing his sword… and then both him and the woman left and no one noticed anything. And how the woman left anyway? Why wasn’t she killed?”

Yes, it started to feel a bit unbelievable. Still…

“Amari suggested she was under the desk when the killer got in the room, so that she ended up not being noticed by him,” he supplied, realizing he didn’t really give Sakuma-san all the details of their theory. “And maybe the risk of being caught turned them both on so they thought it was worth it. Jitsui’s idea, not mine.”

“Under the… no, don’t tell me, I don’t really want to know how Amari thought they were going at it,” Sakuma had decided long ago he didn’t really care how the others handled their relations… from the partner they were to choose to what they would do with said partner, as long as the matter was consensual and remained between the people involved. He usually didn’t want to get involved as it normally brought only troubles and therefore he simply had no wish to know or discuss about this sort of matters for gossiping pleasure, especially if they had been done in one of the offices of the Army.

Miyoshi chuckled. He had no problems discussing someone else’s sex life and didn’t really mind where others were to consummate their trysts but well, that probably wasn’t the moment to try and force Sakuma-san to be more open minded in this regards.

“Then I’ll let it up to your imagination, Sakuma-san. And since the idea was that the Army was covering up things, well, they probably found her and covered up her presence there as well. Or she was killed too but the Army just caused her body to disappear. Something like that. It would explain why no one knows who the Major’s lover was. The Army covered it up.” Really, it hadn’t seemed so bad yesterday night. Now though…

Sakuma-san groaned.

“Do you always have to think the worst of the Army?” he protested. “The Major drags a woman in, the soldiers accept bribes, the Army covers this and that…” Miyoshi ignored his complains. Not that Sakuma expected him to reply. There was probably no way to help it. Miyoshi merely seemed to think the Army was the root of all the evil or something like that.

“The Army could have covered up her presence, right?” Miyoshi asked instead than wasting his time replying to such a silly question. At this point it was better check up all the basis. Sakuma-san sighed but decided to answer him anyway.

“Well… the Army can make sure the presence of a woman wouldn’t figure on the official documents of the investigation so technically yes, it can. It could also probably hid a corpse if needed. Still…” …still even though it wouldn’t appear on official documents, the soldiers on the place would know and would gossip about the superior officer who got killed while he was in his office with his mistress taking care of him from under the desk. Or over it. Or whatever their imagination would suggest them. Gossiping about this sort of things was unprofessional and rude… but Sakuma knew it was done regardless. It’ll be a little too hard to silence the rumours, even for the higher up. The hints… the implications… the insinuations… they couldn’t and wouldn’t be muted and yet… everything had been silenced perfectly.

“Still?” Miyoshi prodded him.

Sakuma didn’t really want to discuss this. He didn’t really want to admit many soldiers wouldn’t know how to keep their mouth shut if such a situation were to happen. He didn’t really own Miyoshi this information. He thought bad enough of the Army. No reason to give his contempt for the Army more fuel. Yet…

_‘Then feel free to take part to the guessing work. Or criticize their theories. Or whatever sits well with you, even confuse and mislead them. When they’ll be on work, they’ll have to interact with other people after all, and those will bring their opinions, sometimes to help them, sometimes to cause them troubles. In the end, whatever your interaction with them will be, it will end up helping their training.’_

“If such situation had happened… it would be a too juicy topic for gossips to pass it up. The Army could remove the woman’s presence from reports but… stopping everyone from running their mouths over this… I doubt it would have been equally as easy. Maybe they wouldn’t know the woman’s name… but, trust me, many of them would think up more details for that meeting than the eight of you put together… instead… everything had been silenced perfectly. No one talk about what might have happened in that office, not even in innuendos. For such a perfect cover up… you need something bigger than a superior officer saying _‘we don’t talk of this matter’_ ,” he admitted. “It makes no sense.”

“Well, we don’t really know if there aren’t gossips,” Miyoshi reminded him. After all they couldn’t go on the place to investigate as they had no idea where this had happened and Yūki-san had told them in a rather amused tone that all they needed for the investigation was already there. Miyoshi remembered finding that tone annoying, as it seemed to imply he didn’t expect them to figure things out. “The fact he told us the Major had a lover might mean there were gossips, as that’s not in the reports. Evidently, the other gossips were useless and…”

“There aren’t gossips,” Sakuma-san stated firmly. “Not even one. If there was a woman there… no one among the soldiers found out.”

In that moment Miyoshi could have punched himself so hard the blow he received with the Bokuto would have seemed a mere love tap.

“Sakuma-san… you’ve been there, haven’t you? You don’t just know these details because you’re in the Army, you’ve inside knowledge in this matter.”

Yūki-san said all they needed for the investigation was there. He failed to mention they even had a person to interrogate. No, it’s not he failed to mention it, he deliberately wanted them to figure out. No wonder theories weren’t coming out as easily and as smoothly as usual, they were missing part of the information needed. Why hadn’t they considered this? Because they were in the habit to think they were more knowledgeable than Sakuma-san so no one had considered he might know something they didn’t, that’s why. And Yūki-san had even sort of warned them against it and yet they…

“I thought you were asking me because you had already figured this out,” Sakuma-san had to remark, sounding mildly surprised.

“Well, feel free to laugh at us because no, we hadn’t guessed,” Miyoshi snapped. Really Sakuma-san didn’t have to point out how blind they had been.

“It doesn’t really look particularly funny,” the man said simply. Well, to be honest Sakuma-san never laughed on their mistakes. He would scold them, yes, but he wasn’t one to make fun of them. He didn’t say what he said to rub on Miyoshi’s face he’d been an idiot, he was merely stating a fact.

“We thought the whole thing happened when Yūki-san was young and working in the Army or something. He told us the facts as if he’d been there to see them,” he admitted sulkily. Tricked. Tricked, tricked! Tricked by the Devil King himself. They’d been all tricked. It didn’t make the matter any better. “Unless it happened in the past but it’s just so famous you know about it as well?”

“The whole matter is covered from military secret. I can’t tell you when or where it happened or who is involved. Actually I’m not even sure if the Lieutenant Colonel was allowed to give you that much information on what had happened and I don’t want to know,” Sakuma-san stated in a peremptory manner.

“So what will happen when it’ll end on your report?”

“I’m not in the habit of reporting my speculations and I’m not supposed to. It’s unprofessional and my superior officer made clear he isn’t interested in them. You were given a case to study. No name was made, not even to me. For all I know the Lieutenant Colonel might have made the whole story up and it’s all due to a big coincidence that it resembles something that truly happened,” Sakuma-san stated calmly. Miyoshi was sure the man was certain he knew which was the case Yūki-san had presented to them… but he didn’t seem annoyed he has no means to report Yūki-san for sharing with them confidential data… and maybe he wasn’t. The idea Sakuma-san and Yūki-san had their own private agreement of some sort over which Miyoshi and the others had speculated the past night seemed to fit with this setting.

“Well, I’m not your superior officer so I don’t mind speculations.”

“I’m not giving you classified information anyway.” The tone had been unyielding and a bit crossed, as if Sakuma-san had thought his question meant to imply he thought Sakuma-san was prone to tattle out reserved material… which Miyoshi thought was rather silly. He knew Sakuma-san wasn’t the type to spill out reserved information, he had no doubts about it and, according to Miyoshi, Sakuma-san had no reason to think he would believe the contrary. Really, sometimes it was too easy to irk Sakuma-san, but this wasn’t in Miyoshi’s plans right then.

“I wasn’t asking for them. I know you aren’t the sort to reveal such things, be it under the promise of a bribe or death threat. Sakuma-san… let’s make a deal. You’ll tell me what’s not classified and I’ll do whatever you say for ten full minutes of my time instead than five,” he offered.

“Uh? Why should I want… Wait, what exactly do you think I asked you those five minutes for?” he sounded in between curious and amused, which really wasn’t good enough as a hint to gauge what Sakuma-san truly wanted from him.

“Scolding me while I shut up and diligently say _‘yes, Sakuma-san’_?” he offered. “You seemed to have a rather pent up wish to scold the whole of us for… whatever, really.” 

In reply to his words Sakuma-san half smiled.

“If this were what I had in mind then not even an hour would be enough to thoroughly and satisfyingly scold you. Though I doubt you’ll seriously listen.”

“No, but I could have faked it really well. Enough to give you satisfaction,” he assured. No point in lying if the lie would be too obvious. “So what is it you want in exchange, Sakuma-san? I’m sure we can find an agreement.”

“As I had no idea you didn’t know I knew the whole story beforehand, you might consider the cost of my… consultation fee covered by our previous agreement. Just keep in mind you’re not going to get confidential info and choose your questions wisely.”

Miyoshi allowed himself a brief second to wonder if he caught Sakuma-san in a good day then decided to not waste his time and take advantage of it.

“So… you’ve been there, right?”

“I’ve been there. I’ll tell you this because you can easily check it up later on, through it would require time you don’t have right now. No Major was killed where I was assigned,” Sakuma-san supplied which, Miyoshi translated, meant that he’d been in the place where the crime had happened in passing. “If you think I know enough to be of some use in your theory making… well, you’re wrong. I’ve just been there and heard the story from some rumourmonger soldiers with a weird sense of humour. You likely found more info in the reports the Lieutenant Colonel had handed you than in what I’ve been told that day.”

Miyoshi considered. Sakuma-san seemed sure he had no relevant info to give… could it be that he knew the whole matter by coincidence and his help wasn’t needed to solve things? No, Yūki-san had deliberately planned this. There should be something that Sakuma-san knew, something Yūki-san hadn’t told them and that wasn’t in the reports… something Sakuma-san thought irrelevant but that actually mattered… something…

“You said there were no rumours about _‘the Major and a woman’_. So which sort of rumours there were?” Sakuma-san didn’t reply immediately.

“Nothing relevant,” he said uneasily.

“There was something though. Don’t tell me rumours are confidential now,” Miyoshi insisted. The man sighed.

“No, they’re just stupid. Really idiotic rumours actually.” He paused but Miyoshi remained silent, something which suggested he was waiting for Sakuma to tell him about it anyway. Grudgingly, he humoured him. “As no one could figure out how they could get in and kill the Major in silence, some people with too much time at their hands, a weird sense of humour and a total lack of respect started saying the Major was killed by a ghost and then he became a ghost himself and he currently haunts his own office in retaliation.”

Miyoshi’s eyes went wide, then he had to try his best to suppress his laugh. Sakuma-san was right, this was rather silly.

“You mean they turned the whole thing into a ghost story? I wouldn’t have ever thought the soldiers of the Imperial Army to be so… imaginative…”

“Say _‘stupid’_. I know that’s what you’re thinking and, for once, I can agree with you,” Sakuma-san corrected him sourly. “It’s deplorable, disrespectful and childish to spread such rumours just to terrify new recruits into thinking a deceased Major would cause them to die.” Miyoshi wondered if Sakuma-san got to scold those soldiers for such behaviour then figured the sourness might meant he couldn’t. Maybe they were higher in ranking than him? And could it be Sakuma-san had been the new recruit they were trying to frighten? He considered asking him if they managed to scare him then decided against it. Sakuma-san was being cooperative. No need to cause him to change his mind.

“Don’t you believe in ghosts, Sakuma-san?” he asked instead, with mild interest. There was a moment of silence.

“It depends,” the man decided to say in the end. “I didn’t believe in that ghost story though. It was clearly fake. Does this have a point?” There was that sort of wariness in the question that told Miyoshi Sakuma-san was considering if his words were to be taken as a subtle insult but was still giving Miyoshi the benefit of the doubt in case that hadn’t been his intention. Miyoshi, who wouldn’t believe in ghosts not even if they were to suddenly appear before him and haunt him for the rest of his life, figured teasing could wait until he found out whatever Sakuma-san knew that could be useful to him.

“I was just curious, no need to be so defensive,” he replied with a shrug. “Was that the only rumour?”

“The only rumour on the matter, yes. I told you it was idiotic.” Sakuma-san sighed again. Evidently he couldn’t get over the idea that soldiers of the Army would make up such stories. Really, he might know more about the inside working of the Army than Miyoshi but he should learn to take a realistic outlook to it and realize it was mostly filled with morons. Still…

“There’s often a reason for which rumours are born. Maybe this one has some relevance on the case,” he ventured. Maybe he shouldn’t discharge this info so easily. Assumptions had already caused him to waste time and to end up with a sore arm.

“It was just because they said no one but a dead spirit could have gotten inside and kill the Major without being seen or heard. Which, I’ll admit, felt like an impossible feat back then,” Sakuma admitted. “Everyone was just _‘it was the Onryō, it could only have been the Onryō’_ …”

“Was security so good?”

“Well, yes, it looked pretty tight and there were no visitors that day, just the ordinary personnel. I didn’t know much about disguises back then though. I guess even that surveillance could be tricked by someone who knew how to properly disguise himself as one of their co-workers…” He frowned. “It still seems a little weird though. If someone had disguised as a soldier and had gotten into the Major’s office, than that soldier would have become the prime suspect, unless he had a perfect alibi. And this would be another odd coincidence in the whole theory…” Also the Army would know there was someone inside the place claiming to be who he wasn’t and yet no mention of this was made… were they covering this up? That they had been tricked into allowing in someone who wasn’t who claimed to be?

“Have you considered the other soldier could have been aware of what was going on and therefore he made sure to have an alibi?” It was a stupid idea, of course, but for once Miyoshi wanted to hear how far Sakuma-san could go in his thinking.

“Well, if he knew someone had intruded in the place pretending to be him and didn’t report it, he was either the sender or an accomplice. However soldiers don’t normally have enough money to hire killers who’re good at disguising themselves to kill their superior officers, no matter how bad said superior officers are,” he said and his tone tinged with a note of dark humour. Miyoshi wondered if the fact he hadn’t been shooting down the possibility that a soldier might want the Major dead was due to him being a little feed up with his current superior officer but kept that thought for himself.

“And being an accomplice in such a thing would be rather risky,” Sakuma-san went on. “More importantly, if the Army is covering this up as you claim, they’ll be more than prone to ignore a good alibi so they would have a culprit. Lastly, assuming the killer would deliberately take the identity of a soldier who already has an alibi seems… well, unrealistically nice for a murderer. Unless he had a connection with the soldier in question and wanted to protect him… but then he would have put him through a rather big risk anyway so he’s an idiot… who successfully pulled out all this, which makes again no sense and…” he trailed off as a sudden thought hit him. “…and you’ve probably figured out all this already, so why are you asking **__me__**?”

“It’s interesting to hear you theorizing. Usually you seem to always offer a reply someone else spoon-fed you with. I wanted to know what you could come up by yourself,” he admitted. “Even if you thought there was something missing in it, you’ve given Kaminaga’s theory a bit of thought.”

“But I came up empty handed anyway.” Sakuma-san made a huffing sound, well expressing his frustration. “We’ve no idea of the means and we’ve no motive and no culprit.”

“What was your theory back then? When you heard about it the first time?”

“That the shoot came from the window. It would have explained why no one had heard it and how he could get killed without people having to enter in his room,” he remembered, sounding annoyed at himself. “But I didn’t know the details and I was mostly miffed at how people insisted it was the work of a ghost as only a spirit could have done it, so I said the first thing that came to my mind. Turned out it was a stupid idea.”

“Because the window was closed and, if someone had shoot the Major from it, the glass would have been broken,” Miyoshi agreed remembering what was written on the report.

“Yeah, that also. The window was closed and the curtain pulled. They couldn’t even have aimed,” Sakuma-san added and this was new info for Miyoshi. He’d been told about the window being closed, not about the curtain. Was it of some importance?

“The curtain was pulled? As if to hide what was going on in the study from someone outside?”

“Drop your idea of the desk, all right? You can’t see the desk from the opposite building,” Sakuma-san informed him, sounding somewhat sullen. “And if the Major was the sort to have meetings under a desk in a Military building, I doubt he and his lover cared for the romantic and secluded atmosphere a pulled curtain can create.” An odd thought crossed Miyoshi’s mind, would Sakuma-san care for this sort of romantic things, but he was quick to dismiss it. It wasn’t really the time for such things.

“So you checked what could be seen from outside? If not the desk, what could one see from outside of the inside of the office?”

“Just the door. And well, the bit between it and the window. Provided the curtain isn’t pulled. But the only places from which you get that visual were military offices that had people working inside that day. Not the ideal place to secretly shoot at someone even if the curtain hadn’t been pulled.” Miyoshi heard Sakuma-san sigh. Evidently back then he had liked the idea someone could have shoot the Major from outside.

“Still… why was the curtain closed?” Miyoshi wondered out loud. It should mean something. One doesn’t close the curtains at that hour of the day…

“It was a habit of the Major as to signal when he didn’t want to be bothered or so they said,” Sakuma-san supplied but he sounded as if he didn’t truly believed it. Miyoshi blinked.

“You asked?” Definitely Sakuma-san had nosed in the whole matter more than Miyoshi had expected him to do.

“It was weird,” the other replied defensively, as if thinking Miyoshi wouldn’t approve of his action. “The place got too dark with the curtain pulled. One would need to turn on the light to accomplish some work. It just… felt weird.” Why pulling a curtain, after all? Why not just commanding not to bother him? And it wasn’t like who wanted to knock at his door could see that the curtain was pulled…

“Yes, it’s weird. You don’t sound persuaded they told you the truth though.”

“I don’t think they lied on this. It’s just…” Sakuma-san sounded uncomfortable. “I don’t know. It’s a mess. No one could have gotten in but the Major obviously wasn’t killed by a ghost. It should have been impossible but it happened.” He made an exasperated sound. “Well, I told you I didn’t really have relevant info.”

Miyoshi considered. Yes, if Sakuma-san knew something relevant, evidently he was unaware of it. What could it be that Sakuma-san knew that could be useful to figure out what had happened but that Sakuma-san would be unaware to know? He clearly didn’t know the Major personally if he had to ask about his habits and to rely in Yūki-san’s physical description of him. He talked with the people working there… but, knowing him, he wouldn’t bother to remember exactly what they told him word by word unless he thought it were important enough… and it was evident that nothing he heard back then seemed relevant to him since he was so sure he knew nothing of the sort. And yet…

“Ne, Sakuma-san, ghost put aside, was there really no one that could be suspected back then?” Miyoshi didn’t really want to spell out _‘do you think one of the Major’s co-workers could have killed him?’_ because he knew Sakuma-san might see it as him attacking the Army needlessly but, if Sakuma-san were the one to come up with suspicions… well, the problem would be solved, wouldn’t it? There was a pause, a sigh, then…

“No one in particular,” the man said reluctantly. “The Major wasn’t one to talk about his enemies, apparently.” There was again that odd note in his tone, the implication it was something Sakuma-san was quoting, not something he believed.

“So they told you. Care to share your suspicions of back then?”

“I didn’t meet anyone suspicion if that’s what you’re asking,” and still his tone was guarded somehow as if there was something he didn’t feel comfortable sharing with Miyoshi. “…and I didn’t spend enough time there to investigate more. Not that I was allowed to,” he added.

“You suspected it was the work of someone inside the place,” Miyoshi stated, voicing what Sakuma-san had only hinted at. Interesting. He hadn’t thought Sakuma-san would have considered it on his own. There was another pause from the man. He frowned as he turned his gaze away from Miyoshi but didn’t try to chew him out for what he said.

“If the shoot couldn’t come from outside and no outsider could pass the surveillance undetected…” There was only a moment’s hesitation. “The murderer had to be inside the place already, isn’t that right?” he asked somewhat bitterly. “I preferred Kaminaga’s theory.”

“Because you didn’t want to suspect other members of the Army.” It was pretty silly… but it was so very Sakuma-san-like that Miyoshi actually found odder how the man had came to suspect the other members of the Army on his own.

“It was sort of surprising you all didn’t,” Sakuma admitted in a deadpan tone. Miyoshi felt like chuckling at that.

“You know, it’s not like we go out of our way to blame the Army for whatever wrongdoing happens in this world,” he had to point out before sobering up. “Yūki-san made clear no one in the Army had anything to gain from killing him and that he wasn’t anybody’s rival or something. Actually he had decent relations with the other graduates. It seemed weird that someone would wake up and decide to murder him,” Miyoshi summarized, remembering how, well, yes, they had considered suspecting the military personnel but Yūki-san’s words had ended up discouraging them. Had that been a red herring? “So? Which info did Yūki-san withhold that made you think someone inside the place could have done the job? Because it wasn’t just because no one from outside could have done it that you ended up on suspecting someone from the Army, right?”

“The Lieutenant Colonel didn’t withhold info. It’s all as he said. All he told you about the Major’s social relations with the other high officers… I’ve also heard back there. There’s nothing more.” There was more instead, and Sakuma-san knew about it. Miyoshi was sure of it. It was just a matter of persuading him to share that info.

“Sakuma-san. You wouldn’t suspect those people without a good reason. It’s not… like you. Is it due to a military secret or something like that?” he ventured. If it was something like that, it would be hell to get it out of Sakuma-san… only it couldn’t really be because he doubted Yūki-san would have wanted them to pull something like that out from the man, so, at worst, it was only something Sakuma-san assumed was a military secret.

“Eh? No. No, it was just…” he trailed out, sounding somewhat uncomfortable. “Nothing. Nothing important.”

“You had a hunch on something,” Miyoshi finally figured. “It wasn’t like a proof or something blatantly wrong. Just something that didn’t sound right, did it?”

“Something like that. I was younger though and maybe I got the wrong impression.”

“Care to share?” he prodded, wishing Sakuma-san would just stop beating around the bush. There was a brief hesitation, then…

“I think the Major wasn’t loved by the ones under him,” Sakuma-san finally admitted. “It might mean nothing though,” he hurried to add. Yeah, it probably meant nothing, Miyoshi thought as well, there should be plenty of underlings who didn’t love their superior officers and… no, wait, Yūki-san had described him as a likable man… but maybe he was a jerk with his underlings as most of the officers in the Army so it wasn’t surprising that… but then why Sakuma-san had found it so suspicious he had assumed they would murder him?

“What did exactly they say against him?” Maybe there was a clue in this?

“Nothing,” was the bitter reply.

“Nothing?” he echoed.

“Nothing,” Sakuma-san confirmed. “If you were to ask them they would sing praises of how he was precise, efficient and duty devoted and so on.” Curious. Which was the basis for Sakuma-san’s words then?

“Is it because they made up that ghost story? Is that why you think they didn’t like him?”

“No, even if that hadn’t helped. If you want proofs, I’ve none. I’m just sure they all disliked him.”

“Yūki-san said he was described as a man filled with good virtues. Trustworthy, fair, precise, serious…” Miyoshi began listing.

“Yes, everyone said so, I know this. Yet I also know they all loathed him. They… I think they feared being suspected since the culprit wasn’t caught and so they didn’t want to admit it… but they hated him,” the man stated firmly. “I don’t think they killed him, at least not the ones I talked with but… to spurn such abhorrence as the one I saw on their faces… the Major clearly wasn’t the perfect officer everyone claimed him to be. Yet everyone seemed scared to do so much as say a single wrong thing against him. As if they really believed his ghost could shoe up and harm them. Only the ghost was clearly a story someone made up so… I don’t know.”

Miyoshi pondered on this. Sakuma-san had tried to stay tame when he had began but, the more he spoke about the soldiers’ feelings for the man, the more Miyoshi could feel he’d been disturbed by them. It shouldn’t have been the ordinary dislike for a bullying boss but something… deeper.

What could push the soldiers to hate that guy then, hate him to the point Sakuma-san said they abhorred him?

“Maybe it was due to his lover,” Miyoshi offered as an idea crossed his mind. “Maybe that’s why he was killed.”

“Back with the lover thing, are you?” Sakuma-san asked back in annoyance. “Anyway that wasn’t the gaze of someone jealous… or annoyed his superior officer is breaking rules in order to have a secret tryst with some woman… which couldn’t have happened there, because he wouldn’t have managed to get said woman in,” the man felt the need to remind him.

“Sakuma-san. Have you considered maybe he didn’t need to get anyone in because his lover was already inside the place?”

“Inside the place? I told you already, a woman couldn’t…” he trailed off as the implications of what Miyoshi was suggesting hit him like a brick wall.

* * *

**JJ's Notes:**

**1\. Miyoshi’s injury:** Miyoshi isn’t masochist and therefore normally he takes good care of his wounds. The fact this time he’s stubbornly not doing it is confusing Sakuma who, of course, doesn’t get which point Miyoshi is trying to prove.

 **2\. Miyoshi’s hair:** According to the drama cd Miyoshi takes an insane amount of time to fix his hair and he’s rather fussy about it. While this could partly be Miyoshi’s fault, when he was interrupted people could see his hair wasn’t perfectly fixed so maybe it’s not **ALL** his fault… So I ended up giving him hair that tend to tangle easily and that actually require care. He still overdoes it but… well, he also has some reasons for devoting so much time to take care of his hair.

 **3\. Short hair in D Agency:** Yūki required everyone in D Agency not to wear a military cut so Miyoshi can’t drastically cut his hair. Not that he would. Sakuma knows Yūki doesn’t allow them to have long hair but he still thinks Miyoshi could keep it shorter, since he wastes so much time with it and now, it turned out, with good reasons.

 **4\. Combing someone’s hair:** It seems in Japan it can be viewed as a pretty intimate act so the situation they’re in is sort of embarrassing for the both of them. Actually Miyoshi was sure Sakuma would have never agreed to it, that’s why he suggested it. However Sakuma was, contrary to his better judgement, feeling guilty and wanted to help so he ended up letting himself be roped into it. Miyoshi refused to show he’d been caught on surprise so he couldn’t take the comb back.

 **5\. Sakuma and his mother:** We’ve no info about Sakuma’s family so I made them up. His mom might be the lady we see with the infant and then later on with the child playing the toy plane in Ep 2 opening scenes, and she seems quite fond of her child so I assumed they had a loving relation.

 **6\. Sakuma being the sword and army expert:** Miyoshi is actually saying it in a sort of joking tone but, truth is, not only Sakuma turned out to know swords well but he actually fundamentally grew and lived in the Army. While, in Miyoshi’s opinion, this blinds him on some matters, Sakuma clearly has more inside knowledge on how the Army works than any of them (Odagiri excluded but Odagiri isn’t there) and Miyoshi knows about it… though that’s not the only thought that’s moving him.

 **6\. Soldiers and when they wear their swords:** I’ve researched this one but I couldn’t come up with anything satisfactory. I also tried to use **‘Joker Game’** as reference but came up with mixing answers. Oikawa didn’t wear his sword when in his office, and Honma doesn’t wear it when going to see him… but the guys interrogating Price had it. In Ep 8 Akutsu wears it while talking with Mutō but not while talking with Kazato… and if we look at D no Maō, Sakuma and Mutō didn’t have it when they met up both in their uniform, Honma always had it same as Yoshino while Oikawa never does and Tobisaki showed up inside his superior officer’s office with his sword on… there’s probably a rule of thumb but since I couldn’t find it, let’s assume that the Major was in a situation in which you’re supposed to wear your sword.

 **7\. Japanese swords and cleaning:** Katana needs to be regularly cleaned as it seems it rusts easily. As in my headcanon Sakuma is a sword lover, of course for him that’s the most likely answer. As he knew the Major was a sword lover as well, it wouldn’t have been out of character for the Major to feel the same way as Sakuma, so his answer makes sense.

 **8\. Sakuma and his knowledge of how the Army behaviour isn’t always perfect:** Sakuma is sort of the type who does everything he can to be the perfect soldier… but I think that deep down the idea is that he knows not everyone is perfect in the Army. In the novel (and more or less in the anime also) he’s aware that Mutō is against D Agency and plotting against it, and probably he knows Mutō would like to use him as a spy even if Sakuma repels the idea. He knows Mutō is vain and chases merits and that he gets drunk in Geisha houses… so definitely he’s aware his superior officer isn’t a model soldier even though he didn’t think he would get so far as to try to shift the blame of his failure on Sakuma and D Agency.

 **9\. Sakuma and ghosts:** No idea if **‘Joker Game’** Sakuma believes in ghosts, but the Sakuma in the third drama cd seemed to be afraid of them. Anyway, Japan has views on spirits that are different from the western world. In Shintoism, when a person dies, his soul leaves the body and enters a form of purgatory, where it waits for the proper funeral and post-funeral rites to be performed, so that it may join its ancestors. Deceased ancestors acquire the power of deities with supernatural attributes. Surviving relatives worship them by honouring their pictures, burning incense, and making offerings of food and drink. The ancestors are will bring good luck to the family and visit it on the Obon Festival. This is probably a part Sakuma was taught to believe as well. However, if the person dies in a sudden or violent manner such as murder or suicide, if the proper rites have not been performed, or if they are influenced by emotions such as a desire for revenge, love, jealousy, hatred or sorrow, or by a task left unfinished, the spirit is thought to transform into a ghost, which can then go back to haunt the physical world. This is the part in which I don’t know how blindly **‘Joker Game’** Sakuma would believe. So I went for the _‘he might consider it a possibility but wouldn’t just swallow it blindly’_ , hence his _‘it depends’_.

 **10\. Onryō (怨霊):** "Vengeful spirit" or "Wrathful spirit". A spirit capable of causing harm in the world of the living, harming or killing enemies, or even causing natural disasters to exact vengeance to redress the wrongs it received.


	5. Chapter 5

_‘Sakuma-san. Have you considered maybe he didn’t need to get anyone in because his lover was already inside the place?’_ Miyoshi had said but, at first those words had made no sense to him and he had tried to complain at the suggestion, to point out how it was extremely unlikely a woman would manage to get inside the place when the realization of what Miyoshi was truly suggesting hit him like a punch in the guts.

He knew of course that it was a possibility, that it was entirely possible that the man had uphold to a tradition that had never completely died down, even though now society viewed it as a source of shame, abnormal, frivolous at best and unpatriotic at worst. He knew how the story went, how they had gotten to this point, he could still remember his grandfather explaining it to him and Kazu.

Nanshoku, his grandfather had said.

Nanshoku…

* * *

“Nanshoku, this was how the Buddhist monks called it,” his grandfather began, his gaze lost faraway in the past as it always did each time he would narrate them historical tales, as if he could see with his mind’s eyes what he was talking about. “It’s a word that comes from China. They used it to refer to a relationship between a young acolyte who would come to be under the wings of an older monk. Their relationship would last until the acolyte would reach adulthood but, as long as it lasted, both parties were supposed to treat it seriously and conduct the affair honourably. Sometimes the monk would even be required to write a formal vow of fidelity to his acolyte.”

“Sounds like a marriage. Did they also do the Sansankudo?” Kazu, his best friend asked, grinning, referring to the ritual in which the bride and groom would take three sips each from three cups of sake. “To me the Sansankudo feels like it’s the best part of marriage. Don’t you also think so, Tomo?”

“Sure,” he agreed, grinning back. Through they were still young, elementary students really, and his father found a waste to let them sample good Sake, his maternal uncle had different thoughts and had let them try the Doburoku Sake Sakuma’s grandmother had brewed. They both had enjoyed it, though they both knew better than to openly talk about it. “Buddhist monks can’t drink sake though, so no Sansankudo for them,” he reminded Kazu.

“Spoilsport. Maybe they can, if they tell no one,” the other suggested, just to tease him, as he pushed him away slightly. “Besides shouldn’t monks also be celibate? Monks just kept quiet about it and didn’t respect their own rules, I’ll tell you!”

“Just because nobody knows, it doesn’t mean it’s permitted!”

He tackled Kazu, who was clearly expecting it and they rolled on the floor laughing under his grandfather’s fond gaze. Best friends from when they were born, they had never truly been kept apart, as if they had been twin brothers and, in more than one way they were, starting by how they had birth the same day, although from different mothers.

“I undertake the training rule to abstain from killing. I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking what is not given. I undertake the training rule to avoid sexual misconduct. I undertake the training rule to abstain from false speech. I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to carelessness,” his grandfather’s calm voice interrupted their rolling around as the man was listing the Five Precepts of Buddhism. They gave up on continuing their playful scuffle and sat up, ready to resume listening again, although their clothes were slightly ruffled now.

“So no, children, I don’t think drinking would be allowed,” his grandfather stated as he saw them ready to listen again, acting as if nothing had interrupted his tale.

“As for the celibate rule… well, some used to say that loving acolytes was an acceptable compromise between total abstinence and sexual involvement with females, while some others said it was just cases of bad conduct that could happen among monks sharing the same cell… It’s hard to say if they really had justifications for their behaviour. All we know is that it happened and that, after all, many monks were used to apply the golden mean: _‘the deed which causes remorse afterward and results in weeping is ill-done while the deed which causes no remorse afterwards and results in joy and happiness is well done’_ so maybe there was nothing to excuse… through I’m no monk myself, children, therefore you’ll have to find someone else to ask about this,” his grandfather admitted with an amused smile.

Sakuma frowned at that suggestion.

“Otō-sama doesn’t want me to go around making questions,” he reminded his grandfather.

_‘You should think of nothing but your duty. You must not have idle thoughts and become careless,’_ his father used to scold him each time he showed interest in something new, usually also hitting him for good measure, so as to better make sure he would remember his little lessons. It was terribly difficult to obey to that order though, he mused as he tried to ignore how Kazu grumbled something rude in regard to his father. He knew well how Kazu despised his father. Not that this helped things any. He felt his grandfather’s hand stroking his head gently.

“Obedience to your father is a good thing, Tomo. Answers, though, can be found even without asking to other people. Books have plenty of them… and the world is all yours to observe. Be diligent in your studies, listen to who knows more than yourself and you’ll eventually find what you want to know without having to disobey to your father’s wishes. Patience is a key that opens many doors, my child,” the old man explained. “Besides your father is probably only trying to protect you from bad influences. There are way too many untrustworthy men going around, babbling their stupid thoughts, thoughts that go against our traditions and our beliefs, men that even get to have their own cursed ideas being printed on newspapers. You must not let other people’ words sway your beliefs, the beliefs you’ve engraved in your heart, Tomo.”

“I understand, Jī-san,” he replied obediently. He didn’t mind studying, he simply would prefer if he could question things more… but his father was against it. He was supposed to obey to what he was told and that was it. Understanding why he was told something wasn’t important, at least in his father’s mind. The only thing that mattered was that he was to obey to his elders.

There was a pause of silence then his grandfather resumed gazing far away, as he lost himself back in his storytelling.

“Afterward Nanshoku spread also among the Buddhist educated samurai, and they took it out of the monasteries in which they had been raised and into their world. They would often call it Bidō, _‘the beautiful way’_ , and guarded this tradition jealously. Experienced Samurai would take a young apprentice under themselves and, **_if the boy agreed_** , they could take the boy as their lover until he came of age. Remind this well, children. No respectable Samurai would force his apprentice into it, no matter how much benefit this could bring to the apprentice or to himself,” his grandfather stated gravely.

“Actually, some of them would consider only proper to wait for the apprentice to be the one who would request for such relationship. It wasn’t something to be taken lightly. Neither was something that could be fickle. Their feelings would need to go to the other through their whole lifetime otherwise it would be a shameful relation, no better than prostitution.”

His grandfather gave them a firm stare to make sure they would fully get the implications of his words. No honourable Samurai would be the one to make the first move… and no Samurai should pursue such relationship lightly. He and Kazu nodded so as to show they understood and his grandfather nodded back, looking pleased.

“Like between a monk and his acolyte, the relationship between a Samurai and his apprentice was often formalized in a _‘brotherhood contract’_ and was expected to be exclusive, with both partners swearing to take no other male lovers. Never misunderstand it, children, it wasn’t just a sexual relationship. During it the Samurai’s duty would be to teach to his young apprentice martial skills, warrior etiquette, and the samurai code of honour as well as also offer social backing and emotional support, while his desire to be a good role model for his apprentice would lead him to behave more honourably himself. In this way this sort of relationship would have a mutually ennobling effect on them both. Together they would vow to uphold the samurai noble ideals and a well-chosen match would strengthen the Samurai status. And even if sexual activity would cease when the apprentice would come of age, even if they both would find fine brides who would give them offspring so they could accomplish their obligations of filial piety and continue their own family lines, the relationships would often persist, developing into lifelong companionship.”

Then… his grandfather’s face darkened, the way it did when he was going to say something he found unpleasant and distasteful.

“In the Tokugawa period though, folk people twisted everything,” the man continued.

Folk people.

Chihō-jin, his father would say with contempt.

_‘Chihō-jin have unclean minds, think of ignoble things, serve only their self interest. Good sense does not promptly occur to them. They are dishonourable, untrustworthy and unfit to serve His Majesty the Emperor,’_ his father liked to state with distaste each time the topic was brought up. His grandfather didn’t share such contempt… but it was clear how he didn’t approve the folk people’s behaviour either.

“They didn’t understand the Samurai’s ways and foolishly turned everything into a commercial transaction, stripped from the commitment and the traditional bonds of loyalty it previously required. Merchants and artisans started to indulge in male prostitution, particularly in Kyoto, where young boys were said to be the most beautiful. Among them it was merely _‘sex for the sake of sex’_ , a way to satisfy their libido as females were scarce. There was nothing good in such thing. In their ignorance they were ruining the tradition, mistaking it for something dissolute.”

His grandfather’s voice was severe and disapproving and he and Kazu could only nod their head again.

“And then… the Kurofune came.”

The Kurofune. He and Kazu had heard many times about the black ships from the west that forced Japan to end its isolationist policy.

In 1853, when the Perry Expedition took place, his grandfather was still very young but it was no secret he never forgave the Americans for how they acted toward Japan. It was more than just the Americans’ behaviour though, what his grandfather had truly loathed had been the powerlessness of his own country. They had to obey to the American demands because they couldn’t oppose to them. They had been weak and had to bow their head to the foreigners’ requests.

Sure, his grandfather believed also that the end of Sakoku, the 220 years period of national isolation Japan underwent, had been a good thing in the long run and improved the country… but the way it happened… and how the Tokugawa Shogunate let it to happen… that was something the man still couldn’t accept. He loved to think that, had they followed the will of Kōmei Tennō instead… and opposed to the foreigners’ requests… maybe they would have all be killed but at least they would have conserved their honour.

“Revere His Majesty the Emperor, my boys, he always knew what was best for his people and will continue to always know in the future as well,” his grandfather reminded them and both he and Kazu knew this sentence summarized his whole feelings over the matter with the black ships. They should have opposed as His Majesty the Emperor wanted. Death would have been better than loss of honour.

“I will, Jī-san. I’ll revere him and serve him well,” he vowed determinately at the same time as Kazu. The old man stared at them, as if to make sure they were sincere in their words then nodded, looking pleased.

“Where were we then? Oh, the foreigners and their unequal treaties. You know how they obtained those treaties to be signed, don’t you?”

They hurried to nod. They really didn’t want to hear this part of history another time.

“Those unequal treaties… weren’t the only consequences to the coming of the black ships. The westerns found our customs as abhorrent, backwards, despicable, and disgusting and labelled our morals as loose if not depraved. They condemned the Ohaguro, the blackening of teeth, claiming it disfigured people, Shunga, our erotic art, was viewed as vile, our clothes and food were considered primitive, Onmyōdō was labelled as a superstition… and even the Nanshoku ended up being considered a perversion by them. The foreigners have always hated our traditions but we pretended not to hear their insulting words out of politeness. However… when our doors were forcefully opened to them, it became impossible to ignore their opinions.”

His grandfather paused, so as to let them try to absorb all that.

“Why? Whoever cares what the foreigners think? Don’t they live far away after all? What does it matter to them what we do?” he couldn’t help but ask his grandfather, frowning.

“Sometimes you can’t just wave away what your enemies think of you, my dear child. They viewed us as weak… and with good reasons as we were far outclassed in armament and technology. To strengthen Japan against the threat represented by the westerns… we had to change. We had to present ourselves as something that the westerns could respect. Something they could see as equal and not merely as a ground for conquest.” His grandfather’s words made sense and yet… yet… they were hard to swallow.

“I don’t like this much, Jī-san. It seems… deception. And selling our customs as if they were cheap talk…”

“I won’t tell you I liked it or that I fully understand why this sacrifice was made, Tomo. But… you always have to remember we’re faithful servants of His Majesty the Emperor. It doesn’t matter if we disagree with what we’re told to do, when we’re given an order, all we can do is to have faith in those who are over us, think that they know what they’re doing and obey. Even if nothing is explained to us. Serving His Majesty the Emperor… isn’t about your personal glory after all. Sacrifices have to be made for the well being of the country and if Meiji Tennō wanted us to do so, we had to obey him without discussions. One day… you too will be a soldier, Tomo. That day… you’ll understand that all that is about is your ability to serve His Majesty the Emperor.”

He nodded at his grandfather’s words. Blind and total obedience to the Arahitogami, His Majesty the Emperor, had been a lesson engraved in his heart from tender age.

_‘Remember that, as the protection of the state and the maintenance of its power depend upon the strength of its arms, the growth or decline of this strength must affect the nation’s destiny for good or for evil; therefore neither be led astray by current opinions nor meddle in politics, but with single heart fulfil your essential duty of loyalty, and bear in mind that duty is weightier than a mountain, while death is lighter than a feather. Never by failing in moral principle fall into disgrace and bring dishonour upon your name.’_

So His Majesty the Emperor had told them and he planned to keep on living following those words.

“According to the westerns’ modern medical knowledge and their _‘esteemed minds’_ the Bidō was the demonstration we were uncivilized and with an evident lack of learning at best, a perversion which made us effeminate and lacking in both masculinity and moral fortitude as well as possibly mentally ill and perverted at worst. Newspapers brainwashed the minds of the folk people, calling for its criminalization and, for a short while, one of our precious traditions which our best rulers and warriors had followed became exactly that, a criminal act.”

There was another pause in the tale as his grandfather let the concept sink. It would mean that Minamoto Yoritomo, Ashikaga Takauji, Hosokawa Takakuni, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Uesugi Kenshin, Miyamoto Musashi, Yamamoto Tsunetomo just to name few of Japan most important historical Shōgun and warriors who should be considered heroes and role models, would all be labelled as uncivilized, effeminate, morally weak, mentally ill and guilty of committing criminal acts. It was enough for the children to shrink away in horror from the mere thought. Such heroes… to have them considered criminals…

“The law was thankfully repealed not much after it was made, but it wasn’t possible to return back to how things were anymore. The stigma remained. While it didn’t really kill the tradition, if what still used to happen in the student dormitories – although, mind you, often deviated from the tradition - were to be considered a hint, folk people still felt allowed to frown upon it.

_‘If it had been a crime, even for a short while, it had to be something wrong,’_ some began to whisper, believing it would bring dishonour and shame to those who were to indulge in it. Even now the press continues to feed folk people’s twisted fantasies by offering them all those new publications about abnormal psychology, publications they follow with sick curiosity and the not so secret wish to find excuses to put to shame their betters.”

Folk people.

Again the Chihō-jin’s behaviour was causing problems.

He thought he was starting to understand why his father believed they had unclean minds and ignoble thoughts. People who’s out to shame others instead than helping them to improve could only be considered dishonourable, untrustworthy.

“Don’t frown like that, Tomo,” his grandfather admonished him. “While what folk people did is deplorable, we’re accountable for not defending the old customs but allowing those people to twist them so that they ended up on deteriorating. What once was an honourable bond and a mutually improving relationship degenerated into an act of lust that weakened who committed it, due to those succumbing to weak, silly emotions like love. Bidō in its true form began to slowly die out when we neglected to preserve its purity and we had been left with something that’s worth being embarrassed about.”

“So… folk people are right in criticizing it now? Because it’s no more what it used to be?” Kazu asked, sounding confuse.

“Even in the best of the cases, bringing shame to a person by slandering him is a completely worthless act pursued for nothing more than the satisfaction of getting something off your chest,” the old man stated harshly, “…and folk people do criticize it only to satisfy their twisted desires. They don’t even worry to check if the relation is honourable or dishonourable, they clearly don’t even know the difference about one or the other and don’t care to learn it. They just take pervert pleasure in controlling someone’s life and ruining it. That’s not how I expect you children to act. There’s no pride in ruining a life. What you truly have to feel proud of, is improving it. Your life. The life of the people around you. You’ve to work to improve them. Never forget this… and never allow anyone to mercilessly bring ruin on those around you…”

* * *

So much time had gone from when Sakuma’s grandfather told him all that, so much time, and Sakuma had grown and had seen the world changing further, the old customs taking different shapes, consequences for who practiced them taking different forms, all those experiences adding in his mind to what his grandfather had taught him over the matter. Yet something inside him had remained just the same.

For a person to take pervert pleasure in controlling someone’s life and ruining it… well this was a vile thing, one that couldn’t be excused.

Sakuma had no idea if the Major practiced the old customs and if he had done it in the right or in the wrong way and didn’t care. He knew however which would be the consequences if the rumour the Major had indulged in them were to spread, regardless of the rumour being true or false. And he also knew he would never allow for such thing to happen.

So, as soon as he had realized what Miyoshi had implied, as soon as he realized what the other had meant to cause with his speculations, his hands had acted on their own accord and he found himself grabbing Miyoshi by the collar and pulling him up, nose to nose.

“Don’t even attempt start slandering those people when you don’t even know what you’re talking about,” he hissed, making a visible effort not to beat him. The Lieutenant Colonel wouldn’t probably approve of it and, anyway, he shouldn’t beat a man who’s already injured, even though Miyoshi was practically asking for it.

Miyoshi mentally cursed himself as he realized he shouldn’t have let himself be caught on surprise by Sakuma-san’s outburst. Sure, a moment ago they were getting along so well but really, which sort of reaction was he expecting by this brainwashed soldier?

Miyoshi knew what the Army had to say about such relations. It wasn’t much different from what many outside the Army were to say.

Abnormal. Perverse. Amoral. Deviant. Corrupted. Obscene. Frivolous. Unpatriotic. Each of the words he’d heard so often being connected to it made his stomach turn. What did whose morons know?

They justified their stance by claiming the _‘big German doctors’_ also said so, completely oblivious their so called _‘big German doctors’_ were actually an Austrian who’d been forced by the Germans to escape in England and who believed everyone was sexually attracted to both sexes and a Swiss one who felt attracted to the Austrian one.

Still, the Army’s stance was a common mind setting nowadays and Sakuma-san, who had been raised from childhood to become a soldier, likely had whose distorted views about same sex relations beaten into his head through all his life. Of course, since Sakuma-san had been taught to despite people indulging in this sort of act right from childhood, he would want to keep the idea some could be in his beloved Army as far as possible from him. Disgusting.

Miyoshi couldn’t share such thoughts but, of course, his heritage and raising process had been rather different from Sakuma-san’s, and so were his view and his experiences in this sort of matters.

Yet Miyoshi knew the truth, knew that even though the official stance Army officers had toward this sort of things was that they despised them, those guys were actually nothing else but hypocrites, who publically shouted against perversion but indulged in it behind closed doors.

Miyoshi knew better than to expect something else from them, after all the world was fundamentally populated by liars and hypocrites. Everyone had two faces and Sakuma-san couldn’t be an exception. Sakuma-san couldn’t really ignore what happened behind closed doors and yet here he was, he too trying to cover up the Army’s hypocrisy. So unsurprising and yet… Miyoshi couldn’t quite explain himself why, for a moment, he had thought Sakuma-san, Sakuma-san who claimed to be so honest and righteous and so against lies, could be different. Oh well, it had been a stupid thought so it was better if he’d gotten rid of it as soon as it had come.

“What’s wrong, Sakuma-san? Afraid people in the Army will be revealed for the perverts they profess to despise?” he taunted, his tone calm, mocking, betraying nothing of the anger that bubbled inside him. Really, it made him furious beyond belief to be proved wrong, to discover that his assumptions over the man’s moral sense were wrong, that, in the end, Sakuma-san was no better than any other man.

He allowed Sakuma-san to keep on holding him by the collar even if, actually, if he had wanted, Miyoshi believed he could have freed himself because, although Sakuma-san was bigger and stronger than him and a good fighter, the man was also so blind with rage he probably wouldn’t make much of an opponent for Miyoshi… but starting a physical fight wasn’t in Miyoshi’s style. There were better ways to deal with the matter.

“If that’s what’s moving you, Sakuma-san, you’re just being as disgusting as them!” he spat. Let’s let Sakuma-san be the one who’ll start the fight, a fight with an injured man. Let’s fully prove how truly dishonourable the man was and slam it in his face as soon as he were to attack. Let’s establish, once and for all Sakuma-san was no better than anyone else, so that everyone would know and remember and…

…and yet the striking blow didn’t come.

Of course Miyoshi’s words had only further enraged Sakuma as, to him, they clearly proved Miyoshi only aimed to baselessly toss dirt against whoever was in the Army, but living in D Agency had forced Sakuma to learn to control himself even better than before so he managed to keep himself in check, if only barely.

Really, he wasn’t going to strike an injured man. No matter what.

Still… Miyoshi had no right to talk in such way. He was only going to cause troubles for the sake of causing troubles, he was only insulting for the sake of insulting, without bothering to do so much as to try to understand the situation, the people involved, the way they lived.

“You… you’ve no right to judge people when you don’t even understand anything about them!” he hissed in between clenched teeth.

“I’m judging? You all are the ones who are doing it! Thinking something is abnormal when you don’t even understand how it works is beyond obtuse!”

Sakuma wanted to retort, he really did but, somehow, the discussion seemed not to make sense anymore because it sounded as if Miyoshi thought **HE** was the one trying to insult people. No, it couldn’t be this, it was just Miyoshi trying to confuse him as he always did.

“Don’t put words in my mouth!” he managed to reply. “You’re the one who doesn’t understand how things work and likes tossing dirt against the Army and those who practiced the old customs, turning everything into a perversion!”

“What? You’re the one who think that everything that doesn’t fit your militaristic standards is abnormal! You want to profit from people’s relations and police them!”

“I don’t give a damn which sort of relations the Major had or with whom! I don’t care how people handle their sentimental life, differently from you! You’re the one who’d been trying to use his relations to shame him in every possible way! What gives you the right to nose into other people’s relations, is it so satisfying to judge them, to accuse them of being perverts and make their lives miserable?”

Miyoshi blinked. All of sudden he had the feeling that he might have misunderstood why Sakuma-san got angry at his suggestion.

“I don’t think the Major was a pervert for sleeping with another man. I was thinking that was what **you** were doing,” he pointed out, his initial anger beginning to dissipate as he saw Sakuma-san growing confuse.

“What do you mean _‘me’_? You’re the one who stuck his nose into the Major’s private business as if they were yours, to drag them out and to shame him and everyone around him by claiming they were perverts!” the man insisted and Miyoshi thought that really, Sakuma-san was a terrible judge of characters if he believed Miyoshi would have problems with the Major - or anyone else for the matter - sleeping with a man.

“Sakuma-san. I won’t think less of the Major because he slept with a man. Actually, as long as those men were good looking, I’ll think him lucky. The Army has some fine male specimens after all…” Miyoshi stated, giving the man an allusive gaze. “Though if the Major picked up the ugly ones to spend his nights, I would have some choice words to say about his personal taste and his low standards,” he added with a slightly challenging grin.

Sakuma-san’s expression turned bewildered, but his hold on Miyoshi loosened slightly.

“What are you trying to get at? The truth. I’m tired of your games, Miyoshi.”

“Before you so rudely interrupted me I was trying to figure out who killed the Major. I thought you knew. If **__you__** hadn’t blown up because you can’t stand the idea of two soldiers sleeping together…”

“What I can’t stand is the idea you would use that to put shame on them!”

“Oh for the love of… That was your doing, not mine! You said I was slandering the Major when I suggested he might sleep with men and completely blew a fuse! Your reaction to me saying he was sleeping with women was way tamer!”

“That’s because I thought this time you were…”

_‘Sakuma-san. I won’t think less of the Major because he slept with a man. Actually, as long as those men were good looking, I’ll think him lucky. The Army has some fine male specimens after all… Though if the Major picked up the ugly ones to spend his nights, I would have some choice words to say about his personal taste and his low standards.’_

Okay, no, maybe, for once, Miyoshi wasn’t trying to…

Maybe… it was possible Sakuma had misunderstood his intentions. After all considering the way Miyoshi usually acted it was reasonable to assume he… not that Sakuma wanted to know. Actually it was much better if he weren’t to know.

Sakuma exhaled slowly then let him go as they stared at each other. An awkward moment of silence followed.

“Since you don’t seem persuaded, Sakuma-san, I’ll say it again. I won’t think ill of the Major for sleeping with men,” Miyoshi stated, sounding slightly annoyed. The problem was… could Miyoshi be trusted on this or was he merely saying so because Sakuma got angry? He could never tell if Miyoshi was saying the truth or not… and Miyoshi was also studying him warily, as if testing his reactions…

“So you say,” Sakuma-san conceded but Miyoshi could see he was still being cautious. So okay, Miyoshi knew he wasn’t the most honest person in the world but this was just… so dumb…

“What about you, Sakuma-san? Would you think less of the Major if it turned out he slept with men?”

“I told you before it’s none of my business with whom the Major slept or how. I just don’t think he should indulge on such things in his office and while on duty,” the other replied grumpily, sticking his hands in his pockets, as if he wanted to make sure he wouldn’t touch Miyoshi, not even by mistake.

“That’s not the answer to my question and you could look at me when you talk to me,” Miyoshi retorted snappily. Sakuma-san looked at him at that, as if stung, then frowned.

“I don’t think less of people for such things. I’m not the one obsessed with western ideas or that despises old custom.” His tone was firm, the same tone he used when he stated matters he was absolutely sure about. As far as Miyoshi knew Sakuma-san wasn’t good at deceiving so it meant he really thought so. But then why before he had turned away his gaze as if…

As Miyoshi studied him the way Miyoshi did when he was trying to figure out if Sakuma was lying, which unfailingly caused Sakuma the wish to smack him because he was no liar, Sakuma clenched his jaw, exhaled slowly and did what he knew he had to do, even if he wasn’t particularly looking forward to it.

“I’m sorry for misunderstanding you and accusing you of something you didn’t mean to do,” he forced himself to say. He didn’t like the idea to apologize to Miyoshi and not just because the other was younger and lower in rank but because Miyoshi usually took advantage of whatever mistake one were to make. Still he wronged him and almost attacked him. He owed him an apology. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise.

Miyoshi’s eyes widened slightly in surprise at his words.

Oh.

_Oh._

Of course Sakuma-san would make a big deal of this, Sakuma-san was so obsessed with being fair so he’d obviously been embarrassed when proved otherwise so…

“Never mind,” slipped from his lips as he found himself lowering his gaze as well, his hands also going to his pockets, though he winced slightly when he moved his injured arm. “You got angry because you thought I was insulting the Major for his preferences. I should have been capable to figure it out and clear up things as soon as you misunderstood me.”

Instead he’d been a moron no better than Sakuma-san and had let his assumptions on Army people influence his judgement. Well, at least Yūki-san wasn’t there to see he’d made the same mistake again. However it wasn’t his fault though that Sakuma-san was so unusual compared to the other Army men…

“So… hum… we both think there would be nothing wrong in the Major’s tastes and that people shouldn’t speak ill of him,” Sakuma-san commented, sounding somewhat uncertain.

“Basically,” Miyoshi agreed. Really, that situation was a mess. How did he get out of there and back on track? He knew during their discussion he had accused Sakuma-san baselessly and also told him some rude things. Sakuma-san now could very well feel entitled not to give him info any longer and leave Miyoshi on his own and, for this, Miyoshi would have only himself to blame. It was that what Yūki-san had been trying to do with this whole thing? Teaching them how to handle informants? If that was the case Miyoshi had completely screwed things over so it was better to hope Yūki-san never were to discover about it and…

“It’s the first time I argue with someone over something we basically agree on,” Sakuma-san observed. His tone seemed lighter but this didn’t mean he would let the matter slide. What was there Miyoshi could say in order to…

Sakuma-san chuckled.

“It’s quite weird, actually, in a sort of funny way,” Sakuma-san commented and… he didn’t seem angry anymore. Miyoshi blinked.

“I… guess?” he ventured, not too sure of what to do of the sudden change of mood. Well, if he stopped for a moment to think at how he screwed up and focused on what had just happened it had been a weird experience, though more than funny it was ridicule. They’d been so angry they were about to jump at each other throat when actually… they were thinking the same? All right, it was weird in a sort of funny way.

The corners of Miyoshi’s lips turned up. Sakuma-san chuckled some more. Miyoshi didn’t remember ever hearing him doing so. It was contagious somehow as he ended up chuckling as well. Really, he too had never argued with someone over something they actually agree on, what a weird experience.

Sakuma-san’s chuckles turned into a laugh and yes, the man’s laugh was contagious because soon Miyoshi was laughing as well and a corner in Miyoshi’s brain told him it was just a reaction caused by the sudden drop in anger and adrenaline but, at the moment, he wasn’t particularly interested in that. Laughing with Sakuma-san felt good somehow and Miyoshi let himself enjoy the moment, let himself be infected by Sakuma-san’s laugh, until they both were sitting on the bed, laughing and holding their stomachs.

They were laughing of themselves and for a silly reason but somehow it felt good, it felt as if it brought him a freedom he never enjoyed. For a moment he was himself and was doing what he wanted exactly as he wanted without worrying about anything and… and slowly, as it came, it went, their laughs quieting down to random chuckles as they tried to recover back control on themselves.

“It has been… a long while from the last time I laughed like that,” Sakuma-san admitted, his gaze lost faraway ahead of himself.

“I bet. I didn’t even know you could laugh. You’re too serious, Sakuma-san. Enjoy life more,” he suggested but as he spoke he realized he too had never laughed so much in that place and Sakuma-san could very well point it out, and maybe Sakuma-san wanted to say so still, as the man looked at him, he only shook his head minutely.

“You’re terrible, you know? The worse of the whole place and that’s saying a lot.” It wasn’t a real scolding, Sakuma-san’s tone for once was fond, not reproaching, nor strict. A nice tone, Miyoshi decided. He liked it.

“Well, I always strive to be the best in what I do,” he stated smugly and then they both went back on chuckling.

“Oh yes, that’s for sure. You’re really the best at being impossible,” the man commented in between them instead than scolding Miyoshi for his words or his overconfidence and somehow Miyoshi didn’t feel offended by Sakuma-san’s words. They were joking, he realized. For once he wasn’t talking with the First Lieutenant Sakuma but with Sakuma-san, the man, and they were joking and they both knew.

It didn’t really last long though. Maybe Sakuma-san was simply too duty devoted for that.

“Anyway… don’t suggest such things about the Major ever again, all right?”

For a moment Miyoshi’s good mood seemed to come to an abrupt halt at such words, then he forced himself to pay attention to the tone Sakuma-san had used. It wasn’t Sakuma-san’s usual scolding one or his commanding one, it almost seemed… worried, but Miyoshi wasn’t sure how to take that warning and, he realized, there was only a thing he could do in such situation in order to deal with it. Instead than just jumping to conclusions, he could try to understand this odd man in front of him first and decide his course of action later.

“Why? You said you wouldn’t think ill of the Major if it turned out he had a male lover and you know I don’t mean to insult him by suggesting this. Why can I discuss with you him having a female lover but not a male one?” He made sure not to sound challenging as he asked. Just someone who wanted explanations. It wasn’t difficult really as, for once, he wasn’t playing a part. He would really like to understand.

Sakuma-san studied him, as if trying to decipher if Miyoshi had ulterior motives or just taking time before answering. Evidently he decided that, with his question, Miyoshi wasn’t challenging his authority but just asking for a clarification as he only sighed before answering.

“The Lieutenant Colonel let you all talk about whatever crosses in your mind… but sometimes I get the feeling this will end up on causing you to forget what can and what can’t be discussed out of here. That’s not something that should be discussed about in those times. It’ll only cause troubles.” Sakuma-san’s tone had been calm. Maybe even gentle. Miyoshi figured the man really believed he was trying to help. Still Miyoshi didn’t like this sort of _‘help’_ but he understood that wasn’t the best moment to throw a fuss. He should probably back out as Sakuma-san had warned to choose his questions wisely and... and no, he decided, there were still answers he wanted, still answers he needed in order to understand.

“We’re in D Agency though. The Major is dead. You’re not hypocrite. So why do you ask me to turn my eyes away and pretend this discussion never had place? That this possibility has never arisen? Why has this to be some sort of taboo that causes dishonour to people for merely discussing it?”

“Dishonour for discussing it? If that’s what you think you aren’t even seeing the tip of the iceberg you’re going to slam against. Miyoshi, I’m not the only one who can figure out what the Lieutenant Colonel was talking about when he proposed you all this case. If this theory of yours were to spread… have you considered what will be of the people involved?”

“The Major had no family, Sakuma-san, and…”

“If it turns out the Major had a lover in the Army, that lover might end up dealing with the Military Police,” Sakuma-san cut him. “At best his career will be halted. At worse… I don’t know, the Military Police is not in a good mood nowadays and hell can befall to whoever does something they don’t judge patriotic so the wise thing is not to get into their radar. Suspecting the Major’s lover to be a murderer would be the perfect excuse to sic the Military Police on him and who knows what they’ll do to make him confess, regardless of him being guilty or not,” Sakuma-san commented with a shake of his head and Miyoshi thought this was a really mild way to point out how bad the Military Police was becoming. Innocent citizens feared it as if it was the devil incarnated.

“Also, if you can’t point out who was the Major’s lover and he doesn’t come forward, whoever will be suspected to be him will have hell for this,” Sakuma-san went on.” Actually, even if the Major didn’t have a lover, the Military Police could decide to nose into this and give hell to everyone for being unpatriotic or whatever. Do you really have to involve those people for a theory you’ve no proofs about and that can be completely unrelated to the whole matter?”

Miyoshi considered. Did he have to? Well, it wasn’t like he cared for those people, but he didn’t even had a urge to make their lives miserable… sure, he wanted a solution to Yūki-san’s puzzle… but he could live just as fine if he weren’t to get one… no, none of those things were even remotely involved in what pushed Miyoshi to insist.

“If I’ll swear it’ll remain between the two of us and, afterward, I won’t breathe a word of this unless you’ll agree with it, will you talk with me about this?”

The truth was simply he wanted to talk with this man. He wanted to talk with him about this and… figure him out, he supposed. This man… was the puzzle he really wanted to solve, much more of the one Yūki-san gave them.

He wanted to talk with Sakuma-san about this and… solve him.

Sakuma tried hard not to feel exasperated by Miyoshi’s insistence. He understood Miyoshi at least had the decency to play it by Sakuma’s rules and wasn’t being so insistent just to be irreverent, annoying and nosy. Still Sakuma couldn’t understand Miyoshi’s obsession for the whole matter. Why did they have to discuss it? Why did they have to expose what the Major didn’t want to expose, wasn’t allowed to expose? If there was something to expose that was it, he reminded himself.

Sakuma frowned. The worst part of all this was he believed Miyoshi’s theory about the Major having a male lover could very well be exact and discussing it carelessly would only end up causing someone’s misery and this was something Sakuma wanted to avoid.

“Why are you so hung up on this lover thing? Let’s assume the Major had a lover and had just spent some time with him before being killed, what does it change? At least, before dying, he had the chance to be with someone special to him. Is this even relevant? If the Major had a lover… had you considered that guy had lost someone he cared about and can’t even mourn the Major properly? Do you realize if this becomes public… not only you’ll toss him in the arms of the Military Police but you’ll only end up opening old wounds?”

Sakuma-san’s perspective on the matter… was an unexpected one from Miyoshi’s point of view. Sakuma-san had no idea a lover could exist till minutes ago… and even now he shouldn’t have an idea of who he could be and yet… he was worrying about that person.

“What if the Major was killed because he had a lover? What if this was why they all loathed him?”

Sakuma blinked.

“You think they were jealous of him to this point?”

“No. I think they were disgusted by his affair to this point.”

There was something in the way Miyoshi said it that made Sakuma think it was important for Miyoshi to voice that theory, important on a personal level but asking why would probably lead Sakuma nowhere and could end up on being perceived as a mere rude nosing into Miyoshi’s private life, a private life Miyoshi wasn’t even allowed to share with him or everyone for the matter.

It was sad in a way. This man was a puzzle to him, one he wasn’t able to solve because, in the same way as Miyoshi had no idea of how things worked in the Army, Sakuma had no idea of how things worked outside it and therefore he couldn’t quite understand what was moving the other. Still, this discussion seemed important to Miyoshi though and this was enough for Sakuma to decide what to do.

“It’ll really stay between us and you won’t breathe a world of it unless it’ll turn out you’ve found the culprit and no harm will befall to whoever is unrelated to this, or yours were just pretty words to win my help?”

Though Miyoshi had pushed… he realized he hadn’t thought Sakuma-san could consider to concede. Sakuma-san was a stubborn man and… and Miyoshi had the feeling talking about this could put him as well in troubles. Sakuma-san wasn’t like them at D Agency, Miyoshi was forced to remind himself. Sakuma-san wasn’t directly under Yūki-san and his boss wouldn’t like him to discuss about this. It was reasonable Sakuma-san would keep on refusing to talk with Miyoshi about this. Yet Sakuma-san decided to…

“All right. I’ll stay by your terms. I swear.”

“Are you really capable to keep your word on this?” Sakuma-san’s gaze was intense, focused, attentive as he asked him that, the man looking at him as if he could find an answer to his question just by studying him hard enough. It somehow reminded Miyoshi of the sword fight, of how Sakuma-san had looked at Kaminaga before tossing himself against him.

_‘I like it, when he looks at me like that, as if I were the sole focus of all his attention,’_ he realized, though actually _‘like’_ was a rather mild word for what he felt in that moment… and anyway it wasn’t the time for such thoughts. If he wanted Sakuma-san’s… cooperation… he couldn’t hesitate now.

“If I don’t keep my word, you can tell the Colonel I made such speculations because I’m one of those perverts. He’ll easily forget an old case to come after a D Agency student.” It wasn’t a big deal to tell Sakuma-san the truth in such circumstances, he mused, not really. Since Miyoshi planned to hold his part of the deal and since Sakuma-san was too honourable to break his own, Miyoshi knew the whole matter would remain between the two of them. At least that was what he told himself.

He saw Sakuma-san frowning and being about to speak and, believing he had figured out what he was about to say, Miyoshi anticipated him.

“If that’s what you’re thinking no, I’m not suggesting you to lie to put me in troubles, Sakuma-san, I know that’s something you won’t do. Actually, Sakuma-san, I’m sort of disappointed you hadn’t figured out on your own, you know? I hadn’t been exactly discreet,” he teased. At that Sakuma-san though looked at him as if he were a complete moron.

“That’s not the point! You shouldn’t have told me that! I wasn’t supposed to know! Colonel Mutō had never thought about this but what if he were to consider it one day? What if he were to question me about it? I’m not supposed to lie to my superior officer and…” Sakuma-san made an exasperated sound. “Colonel Mutō loathes the Lieutenant Colonel more than everything in the world and would do all he could to harm him! Actually that’s not even the greatest problem as the Lieutenant Colonel has so many enemies in the Army it’s pointless to count them! Still, it’s not so easy to attack the Lieutenant Colonel directly but you’re just a Second Lieutenant! Don’t you realize they won’t hesitate to… do everything to you in hope to use you bring ruin to him? Do you really have to hand them the means to make this easier?”

Miyoshi stared at him then couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of the situation.

“You… you really are an odd man, you know? Nothing I’ve experienced before. Not even close.” Sakuma-san stared at him clearly not understanding what he was saying.

“What’s there that’s so odd?”

“You’re worried about me, Sakuma-san,” Miyoshi pointed out. Sakuma-san still seemed not to get it.

“You’re a Second Lieutenant sort of under me, you know? I don’t care if you think you can handle everything, on some things you’ve the common sense of a rock and this is inviting troubles!” Also Sakuma totally loathed underhanded methods. If the higher up so wanted to go after the Lieutenant Colonel they should just go after him, not after his students. Sakuma simply couldn’t stand to such a coward behaviour and wanted no part in the whole matter.

“Sakuma-san, I’m a thorn in your side,” Miyoshi found himself reminding him. He knew he made troubles for Sakuma-san more often than not and even got fun in annoying him. Really, any other normal man would be delighted to have a chance to… _‘return the favour’_ and try and put Miyoshi through hell as well.

“Miyoshi. That’s the understatement of the century and is also completely unrelated with the problem at hand,” Sakuma-san retorted sounding like he really couldn’t see a connection between the two facts.

Miyoshi shook his head. This odd, odd man wouldn’t understand, not even if Miyoshi were to explain him. He wouldn’t understand that logic dictated he shouldn’t worry for Miyoshi that, like his superior officer, he should much prefer for Miyoshi to end up in a world of troubles.

No, it actually wasn’t he wouldn’t understand.

Sakuma-san knew that was the way his superior officers worked, that they wanted to put Yūki-san in troubles in return for the troubles he caused them, that they wouldn’t hesitate to ruin Sakuma-san himself, who was loyal to them, in order to reach that goal.

It wasn’t that Sakuma-san didn’t understand it… it was just… he didn’t agree with it.

To Miyoshi, who had never had someone who would worry for him, not even his relatives, and that wasn’t used to people genuinely attempting to be fair with him, Sakuma-san was the oddest person he ever met. That wasn’t the time to muse on that though.

“Well, Sakuma-san, are you going to help me with the problem at hands then? Can we talk about the Major’s… sentimental life or not?”

Sakuma-san looked at him as if Miyoshi were beyond his understanding then sighed.

“The common sense of a rock, I’ll tell you,” he repeated rolling his eyes as he remembered how Miyoshi had stood completely soaked in front of him in the cold weather, chattering of how he felt fine even if he admitted he could just die of hypothermia. In Sakuma’s mind that wasn’t analyzing the situation and responding with sound judgement, that was being bereft of common sense. Who cared if your body isn’t perceiving the cold? If it needs to be dried and warmed up, you’ll dry and warm it up, you don’t stop for chatting! Explaining it to Miyoshi though, was probably going to be pointless.

Really, this guy could be so bright and capable and amazing and yet… he would fail on some things that for Sakuma were as easy as breathing. The wise thing would be to leave him on his own devices but… Sakuma just couldn’t. Kazu was right, his sense of responsibility toward others would be his downfall… or maybe he too was lacking common sense or… Miyoshi just had something that made him wish he could help him… though Sakuma didn’t really want to know what that something was. Anyway there was only an answer he could give him.

“Fine, let’s discuss. I doubt this can get any worse than what it already is, but I fear I’m just undervaluing you. Oh well, we’ll cross that bridge when we’ll get there. Shoot. What’s your insane theory this time?”

Miyoshi though that, despite his words, Sakuma-san sounded different from before. When Miyoshi had exposed him the theory the Major might have a female lover Sakuma-san had sounded irritated at the whole thing and set on disproving it and chewing Miyoshi for coming up with such ideas.

Now… even if he had made clear how he didn’t like this sort of discussions and wasn’t really considering Miyoshi’s idea to be possible, he merely sounded attentive and… well, he didn’t feel unfriendly anymore. Even his posture, as he sat near Miyoshi, looked relaxed.

Sakuma-san this time wasn’t going to be antagonistic, he would genuinely just discuss the whole thing with him. It gave him an odd feeling that wasn’t simply good because he’d got what he wanted, it was deeper, unfamiliar and more complicate and somehow put him at ease as nothing else had done before. It was weird but maybe it had to be expected since he was dealing with a very weird man.

“The Major was killed because they found out he was what your friends in the Army calls a _‘pervert’_. That’s the theory,” he stated. Sakuma-san didn’t seem impressed either way.

“First, it’s your friends among the civilians that started calling people indulging in the Nanshoku as such, and even writing obscene newspapers that had fun tossing dirt against them, and second, I would assume if the Major indulged in the old customs, he had the good sense not to spread this around as you just did. Third and last, killing him wouldn’t be a little too overboard when there were much better ways to deal with him? Ah, no wait, I almost forgot. What about the lover? Why didn’t they kill him as well? Or are you going to tell me they let him under the table?”

Sakuma-san, Miyoshi noticed, had spoken in a less formal way than he did before, without being wary of the words he were to choose. He was talking to him as an equal, he realized. Yes, this wasn’t First Lieutenant Sakuma talking to Second Lieutenant Miyoshi, this was Sakuma-san just talking to him. Whatever point they would reach during their chat, Miyoshi was sure things were going to be interesting.

“Are you going to let me explain or are you just going to be contrary?” he asked, though he sounded mildly amused.

“I’ll regret it but explain.”

“Thank you.” He paused, saw Sakuma-san continuing to watch him attentively. Despite his complains he was still willing to listen. Good, he mused as he prepared himself to start the exposition of his theory.

* * *

**JJ's Notes:**

**1\. Sakuma’s grandfather’s tale:** Please, don’t take Sakuma’s grandfather as an omniscient narrator. This is just what Sakuma’s grandfather knew and believed and passed down to his grandson. It isn’t an accurate and exact essay, but the man is not a history book or a history researcher and, here and there, he’s biased in his conclusions. Actually, I’m afraid he’s way too much knowledgeable about past history compared to the men of those times but let’s pretend it’s not too odd he knew so much. Anyway if you want an exact and accurate retelling of what happened in Japan during those years there are better sources for this purpose than this meagre fic.

**2\. Nanshoku or danshoku (男色):** Literally it means “Male colours” though the character 色 (colour) has the meaning of sexual pleasure in China and Japan. This term was widely used to refer to some kind of male–male sex in a pre-modern era of Japan.

**3\. Sansankudo (三三九度): **Part of the Shinto marriage ritual in which the bride and groom take three sips each from three cups of sake.****

********

**4\. Sake (酒) and underage drinking:** The Sake is the Japanese rice wine. The Japanese underage drinking law came into effect in 1922 however it seems it has been ignored ever since. In addition to this it seems that the taste of real Japanese sake (which is supposedly also super smooth) is the sort that makes it easy to be liked even by kids. Long story short, Sakuma and Mikoshiba shouldn’t have drunk Sake as they were clearly underage but no one cared about it so they tried it and liked it. At least it was a small amount though. Now… during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905, the government banned the home brewing of sake as, at the time, sake made up the 30% of Japan's tax revenue. Since home-brewed sake is tax-free sake, the logic was that by banning the home brewing of sake, sales would go up, and more tax money would be collected. According to some though, people still continued to homebrew Doburoku (濁酒), a type of unfiltered, rustic and unrefined Sake, which is sweeter than sake with a lower percentage of alcohol, in secret. The law that bans home brewing Sake remains in effect today as, at present, fermenting more than 1% alcohol without a license is illegal (undiluted sake contains 18%–20% although this is often lowered to about 15% by diluting with water prior to bottling). So, since Sakuma should have had birth around 1911-1913, this means that yes, his uncle was illegally brewing Sake, which is why the children aren’t supposed to tell around they drank homebrew Sake. The children, being children, don’t know about the law against home brewing Sake yet, so they don’t see anything wrong in it. Also, even if, as of now, brewing Sake is usually made by males, in Japan’s past it was made by females, hence that’s why it’s Sakuma’s maternal grandmother the one who brewed it.

**5\. The Five Precepts of Buddhism:** They constitute the basic code of ethics undertaken by followers of Buddhism. The precepts in all the traditions are essentially identical and are commitments to abstain from harming living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication. They are considered general rules intended to regulate behaviour or thought. Undertaking the five precepts is part of both lay Buddhist initiation and regular lay Buddhist devotional practices. They are not formulated as imperatives, but as training rules that lay people undertake voluntarily to facilitate practice. As Sakuma’s grandfather said they are:  
I undertake the training rule to abstain from killing.  
I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking what is not given.  
I undertake the training rule to avoid sexual misconduct.  
I undertake the training rule to abstain from false speech.  
I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to carelessness.

**6\. “The deed which causes remorse afterward and results in weeping is ill-done while the deed which causes no remorse afterwards and results in joy and happiness is well done”:** It seems you can find this quote in the **‘Dhammapada’** (धम्मपद), a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures.

**7\. Otō-sama (お父様) and Jī-san (爺さん):** Respectively they mean “Father” and “Grandfather” but Otō-sama is a lot more formal and respectful way to say “Father” compared to Jī-san (the equivalent would be Ojī-sama). The idea is not that Sakuma respects less his grandfather but that he has a closer relationship with him hence he speaks with him in a less formal way.

**8\. “You should think of nothing but your duty. You must not have idle thoughts and become careless.”:** Actually this is apparently a quote from the **‘Hagakure’ (葉隠)** a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo from 1709 to 1716 but first published in 1906. During WW2 it will become basically the Holy Bible of how soldiers should behave.

**9\. Bidō (美道):** “The beautiful way”, also known as Wakashūdō (若衆道) or Shūdō (衆道), “The way of the youth”. According to some sources Samurai preferred to use Bidō instead than Nanshoku, Wakashūdō or Shūdō to refer to a male-male relationship between a samurai and his apprentice. I’ve no idea if it’s the truth but again, Sakuma’s grandfather isn’t an expert either so it’s fine either ways. Just so you know the apprentices involved in such relations had to be Wakashū (若衆 “Youth”), boys between the ages at which their head was partially shaven (about 5–10 years of age), at which point a boy exited early childhood and could begin formal education, apprenticeship, or employment outside the home, and the Genpuku (元服) coming of age ceremony (mid-teens through early 20s), which marked the transition to adulthood and would put an end to their relationship with Samurai. Due to this Samurai occasionally delayed their apprentices’ coming of age ceremony beyond socially acceptable limits, leading to legal efforts in 1685 to require all the Wakashū to undergo their coming of age ceremony by age 25.

**10\. Filial piety:** In Confucian philosophy, filial piety (Chinese: 孝, Xiào), which is central to Confucian role ethics, is a virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors although the term can also be applied to general obedience. In more general terms, filial piety means to be good to one's parents; to take care of one's parents; to engage in good conduct not just towards parents but also outside the home so as to bring a good name to one's parents and ancestors; to perform the duties of one's job well so as to obtain the material means to support parents as well as carry out sacrifices to the ancestors; not be rebellious; show love, respect and support; display courtesy; **ENSURE MALE HEIRS** , uphold fraternity among brothers; wisely advise one's parents, including dissuading them from moral unrighteousness; display sorrow for their sickness and death; and carry out sacrifices after their death. In short males were always expected to marry in order to continue the family line and the fact that they would take a male lover didn’t free them from this obligation. It’s also good to remember that, for men, sexual gratification was seen as separate from conjugal relations with one's wife, where the purpose was procreation.

**11\. Chihō-jin (地方人) or folk people and how they twisted everything:** Chihō-jin means “Local/folk people” but in Joker Game time, people in the Army used it as a derogatory term for who wasn’t in the Army. The D Agency boys, except Odagiri, are all Chihō-jin. Now… in regard to folk people ruining everything… history is actually a little more complicate than how Sakuma’s grandfather depicts it. When Japan started to become more peaceful, urbanization and lack of war brought caused lot of people to move into the cities. At the same time the samurai class lost power and wealth in favour of the middle class and merchants. So while less and less people would not go into a samurai career and Samurai themselves would have less and less wealth on their hands to continuously support eventual younger disciples… well, at the same time, merchants became richer and richer, so they decided to emulate the customs of what was, back then, the elite (the samurai) especially since back then there were comparatively a lot less females than males. Long story short, male prostitution became an easy and widespread solution. Oh and Sakuma’s father’s opinion in regard to the folk people is inspired by these quotes in the **‘Hagakure’** : _‘The lower classes have unclean minds, thinking of ignoble things, not to mention self interest. Good sense does not promptly occur to them.’_ There’s to remember that back in the time in which the **‘Hagakure’** was written the warrior class was an upper class and folk people were below them.

**12\. Kurofune (黒船):** “Black ships”. In the beginning it was just the name given to Western all the vessels arriving in Japan in the 16th and 19th centuries due to the Portuguese, in 1543, initiating the first contacts using large carracks that had the hull painted black with pitch. However, after the Perry Expedition, Kurofune ended up referring specifically to the ships involved in the Perry expedition, Mississippi, Plymouth, Saratoga, and Susquehanna, black now referring also to the black smoke from the coal-fired steam engines of the American ships. The Kurofune also ended up on becoming a symbol of the ending of Japanese isolation.

**13\. The Sakoku (鎖国) and the Perry Expedition:** The Sakoku (鎖国) which means “closed country” but is commonly translated as “period of national isolation” was the isolationist foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate (the Japanese feudal military government whose head was called Shōgun (将軍)) under which relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely limited, nearly all foreigners were barred from entering Japan and the common Japanese people were kept from leaving the country for a period of over 220 years. It ended after 1853 when the American Black Ships commanded by Matthew Perry forced the opening of Japan to American (and, by extension, Western) trade through a series of unequal treaties. These Treaties were widely regarded by Japanese intellectuals as unequal, having been forced on Japan through gunboat diplomacy, and as a sign of the West's desire to incorporate Japan into the imperialism that had been taking hold of the continent. Among other measures, they gave the Western nations unequivocal control of tariffs on imports and the right of extraterritoriality to all their visiting nationals. They would remain a sticking point in Japan's relations with the West up to the turn of the 20th century. 

**14\. Tokugawa shogunate:** The Tokugawa shogunate was the last feudal Japanese military government, which existed between 1600 and 1868. The head of government was the Shōgun (将軍), which was fundamentally a military dictator and each Shōgun was a member of the Tokugawa clan. When Perry came, the Japanese government was paralyzed due to the incapacitation by illness of Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyoshi, who died days after Perry’s departure from his first visit to Japan, and was succeeded by his sickly young son, Tokugawa Iesada, leaving effective administration in the hands of the Council of Elders led by Abe Masahiro, who polled all of the daimyo for their opinions. This was the first time that the Tokugawa shogunate had allowed its decision-making to be a matter of public debate, and had the unforeseen consequence of portraying the shogunate as weak and indecisive while the results of the poll failed to provide Abe with an answer. In the end they agreed to sign the first of a series of unequal treaties with the western powers, the Kanagawa treaty. Internally, the treaty had far-reaching consequences. Decisions to suspend previous restrictions on military activities led to re-armament by many domains and further weakened the position of the Shōgun. Debate over foreign policy and popular outrage over perceived appeasement to the foreign powers was a catalyst for the **‘Sonnō Jōi’** (尊皇攘夷, Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians) movement and a shift in political power from Edo back to the Imperial Court in Kyoto. The opposition of Emperor Kōmei to the treaties further lent support to the **‘Tōbaku’** (倒幕 Overthrow the shogunate) movement, and eventually to the Meiji Restoration (明治維新 Meiji Ishin) an event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji.

**15\. Kōmei Tennō (孝明天皇):** “Emperor Kōmei”. The ruling emperor at the time the Perry Expedition took place. He resided in Kyoto and was fundamentally only a figurehead but he began to assert himself and regain many of the powers his ancestors had conceded to the Tokugawa clan when the shogunate, divided by internal disputes, gradually surrendered sovereignty to the foreign powers under threat of military force. At the time he was against opening Japan to Western powers leading to the **‘Sonnō Jōi’** (尊皇攘夷, Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians) movement.

**16\. Shunga (春画):** Literally translated it would mean “picture of spring” where “spring” is a common euphemism for sex. They’re a type of Japanese erotic art, usually a type of ukiyo-e, normally executed in woodblock print format. Truth to be told not even the Tokugawa shogunate was fond of them and tried to ban them, though it seems they kept on flourishing. With the opening to the west though, things took a turn for worse. There’s to say though that Japan continued to produce erotic images, but first figures began to appear in prints wearing Western clothing and hairstyles and eventually, Shunga were replaced by erotic photography… Anyway, I told you, Sakuma’s granddad is a bit biased in his storytelling.

**17\. Onmyōdō (陰陽道):** “The Way of Yin and Yang”. It is a traditional Japanese esoteric cosmology, a mixture of natural science and occultism based on the Chinese philosophies of Wu Xing (five elements) and yin and yang, introduced into Japan at the beginning of the 6th century. It was accepted as a practical system of divination. In 1872 it was abolished as a superstition.

**18\. Japanese customs and westerns:** Due to different cultures and religions the westerns never liked some of the Japanese customs and expressed their opinions against them. For example there’s an account dated 1550 retelling how a Jesuit friar, while being guest of a daimyo, when asked to talk about the Christian doctrine, started telling the daimyo, with rather rude words, all the sins the Japanese were committing according to Christian doctrine, among which idolatry and sodomy. The daimyo, despite being furious, didn’t kill him ( **‘Historia do Japao’** by Luis Frois). Not much years later though, there’s to say the Japanese government started to increasingly see Catholicism as a threat, and started persecuting Catholics. Christianity was banned and those Japanese who refused to abandon their faith were killed… while all the Portuguese people were banished to Macao. So it’s not exactly as Japanese people were so tolerant with foreigners as Sakuma’s granddad is depicting they were, although to him it felt as such.

**19\. Arahitogami (現人神):** “Living god”. Back in Joker Game time it was a term used solely to refer to the Emperor. It wasn’t a new word or a completely new way to refer to the emperor though, as it seems it first appears in the **‘Nihon Shoki’** (日本書紀 “The Chronicles of Japan”), the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history which was finished writing in 720. According to the Nihon Shoki the legendary prince Yamato Takeru (ヤマトタケルノミコト Yamato Takeru no Mikoto), son of Emperor Keikō, who is traditionally counted as the 12th Emperor of Japan said _‘I am a son of Arahitokami’_ , meaning his father, the Emperor, was the Arahitokami, the “Living god”. Yūki however is not wrong when he claims that before the Meiji era people outside of Kyoto (where the Emperor lived) had forgotten his existence (as the power was all in the hands of the Shōgun) and that the title had only been in use in the recent decade… though I seriously doubt in JG time the emperor was troubled by being considered a living god.

**20\. ‘Remember that, as the protection of the state and the maintenance…’… ‘…principle fall into disgrace and bring dishonour upon your name.’:** We heard this being repeated at the beginning of Joker Game Ep 2. It’s the **‘Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors’** (軍人勅諭 Gunjin Chokuyu), the official code of ethics for military personnel. Issued by Emperor Meiji on 4 January 1882 it is assumed to be the basis for Japan's pre-World War II national ideology. All military personnel were required to memorize the 2700 kanji document. Sakuma, being from a family of soldiers, ended up doing it in advance.

**21\. Hentai seiyoku (変態性欲):** “Abnormal/Perverse sexual desire”. A translation of German sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing's text **‘Psychopathia Sexualis’** originated the concept of _‘hentai seiyoku’_ , as a “perverse or abnormal sexual desire”. Mind you, back then _‘hentai’_ merely meant “abnormal” as in “unusual” or “displaying variations out of the ordinary”, be they negative (juvenile delinquency) or positive (genius) and didn’t necessarily have a sexual connotation as it was also used to refer to paranormal abilities as well as to psychological disorders. Any perverse or abnormal act could be hentai, such as committing Shinjū (心中 “love suicide”) or indulging in same sex love. It will take a long time for the word _‘hentai’_ to take the meaning it has now.

**22\. Sodomy law in Japan:** In Japan for a short while sex between men was punishable under the sodomy laws announced in 1872 and revised in 1873 to comply with the newly introduced beliefs of Western culture and Qing Legal Codes (the Penal codes used back then in China). The law said: _‘Those engaging in anal intercourse shall each be sentenced to ninety days of penal servitude. In the case of the peerage and ex-samurai, this shall be treated as a dishonourable offence. Violated youngsters fifteen years and under shall not be held criminally liable. Those committing anal rape shall be sentenced to ten years of penal servitude. For attempted rape, the penalty shall be reduced by one degree.’_ [ **‘Kaitei ritsuryo’** , Article 266]. Despite sodomy being largely practiced when this law came to be, it seems it had hardly been punished using this law though, as only 20 cases are registered. The article was repealed only seven years later by the Penal Code in 1880, in accordance with the Napoleonic Code (the Penal codes used back then in France). Among the changes there were that the previous criminalization of consensual anal intercourse between adult males was abandoned and anal intercourse between males was now subsumed under a larger group of criminal offences named _‘obscene acts’_ which were only illegal and thus punishable only in certain circumstances, where coercion or minors were involved. As a result, consensual acts between adults were no more patrolled by the state. That’s because it seems that according to the Napoleonic laws, sodomy constituted a disgraceful sin, but French lawmakers did not see criminal prosecution as an appropriate form of regulation for it, thinking that it was better to subject the individuals who engaged in these sins to disdain and loathing in civil society so that the matters of sexual conducts would be left to be judged by social morality. When the changes to the Japanese code were done, the general idea was that the new Japanese Code would have to be inspired on this idea as well. Since that time no further laws criminalizing homosexuality have been passed but it was left up to social morality to displace statutory legislation in regulating sexual and homosexual behaviours.

**23\. Minamoto Yoritomo, Ashikaga Takauji, Hosokawa Takakuni, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Uesugi Kenshin, Miyamoto Musashi, Yamamoto Tsunetomo:** They’re all powerful Japanese people who were known to have followed the Bidō tradition. Note that they didn’t just have male lovers, they also had wives and concubines because back then it was judged perfectly normal for a samurai to have **BOTH** male and female lovers and it was required for a family head to produce offspring to continue the family line… and mind you, due to this the list could have been a lot longer. If you want more details on the guys I’ve mentioned:  
**Minamoto no Yoritomo** (源 頼朝, May 9, 1147 – February 9, 1199) was the founder and the first Shōgun of the Kamakura shogunate that ruled from 1185 to 1333. He had 1 wife and 2 concubines.  
**Ashikaga Takauji** (足利 尊氏, August 18, 1305 – June 7, 1358) was a descendant of the samurai of the (Minamoto) Seiwa Genji line (meaning they were descendants of Emperor Seiwa) and the founder and first Shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate, which governed Japan from 1338 to 1573, the year in which Oda Nobunaga deposed Ashikaga Yoshiaki. He had 1 wife and 2 concubines.  
**Hosokawa Takakuni** (細川 高国, 1484 – 17 July 1531) was the most powerful military commander in the Muromachi period under Ashikaga Yoshiharu, the twelfth Shōgun.  
**Oda Nobunaga** (織田 信長 June 23, 1534 – June 21, 1582) was a powerful Daimyō who is regarded as one of three unifiers of Japan, widely known for most brutal suppression of determined opponents, but also for being a skilled ruler and keen businessman, economic reformer, strategizing at both the micro- and macroeconomic scales. He had 1 wife and 2 known concubines (it seems there were more than 2 but I couldn’t find the exact count). He died attended only by his young page, Mori Ranmaru (森 蘭丸), was still in his teens and with whom he was believed to have a lord-vassal relationship that followed the Bidō tradition.  
**Toyotomi Hideyoshi** (豊臣 秀吉, March 17, 1537 – September 18, 1598) was a preeminent Daimyō (大名, “Feudal lord”), warrior, general, samurai, and politician of the Sengoku period who is regarded as Japan's second “great unifier”. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Warring States period. He had 1 wife and 14 concubines.  
**Uesugi Kenshin** (上杉 謙信, February 18, 1530 – April 19, 1578) was one of the most powerful Daimyō of the Sengoku period, remembered for his prowess on the battlefield, and also regarded as an extremely skillful administrator who fostered the growth of local industries and trade, famed for his honourable conduct, his military expertise, a long-standing rivalry with Takeda Shingen, his numerous campaigns to restore order in the Kantō region, and his belief in the Buddhist god of war, Bishamonten, so that many of his followers and others believed him to be the Avatar of Bishamonten, and called Kenshin _‘Gunshin’_ (軍神 “God of War”).  
**Tokugawa Ieyasu** (徳川 家康, January 31, 1543 – June 1, 1616) was the founder and first Shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which effectively ruled Japan from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three unifiers of Japan. He had 2 wives and 19 concubines.  
**Miyamoto Musashi** (宮本 武蔵, c. 1584 – June 13, 1645), was an expert Japanese swordsman, writer and rōnin. He became renowned through stories of his excellent and unique double-bladed swordsmanship and undefeated record in his 60 duels. He was the founder of the Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū or Niten-ryū style of swordsmanship and in his final years authored **‘The Book of Five Rings’** (五輪の書 Go Rin no Sho), a book on strategy, tactics, and philosophy that is still studied today.  
**Yamamoto Tsunetomo** (山本 常朝 June 11, 1659 – November 30, 1719), was a samurai of the Saga Domain in Hizen Province under his lord Nabeshima Mitsushige. When Nabeshima died in 1700, Yamamoto did not choose to follow his master in death in Junshi (殉死 “Following the lord in death”, sometimes translated as “suicide through fidelity”) because his master had expressed a dislike of the practice in his life, renounced the world and retired to a hermitage in the mountains. Later in life (between 1709 and 1716), he narrated many of his thoughts to a fellow samurai, Tashiro Tsuramoto. These commentaries were compiled and published in 1716 under the title of **‘Hagakure’** , which by the 1930s will become one of the most famous representatives of Bushidō (武士道 “The way of warriors”) taught in Japan.  
If you want to know why I didn’t also list the number of _‘beloved retainers’_ they had, it’s because I couldn’t find it… though they all either had them or had been _‘beloved retainers’_ during their youth. In short the key point is that in that time period for samurai the norm was to be interested in both sexes and therefore have male and female lovers as well as always get married to produce offsprings.

**24\. What happened in the student dormitories:** It seems than in the Meiji era (1868–1912), homosexual activity became associated with student dormitories (male and female ones to be honest) in fact people would talk of “Nanshoku netsu” (男色熱 “Male colours fever” or “male-male sex fever”) happening in schools because, since standardised education was an integral part of the Meiji government's “Westernisation” process, close relationships between seniors and juniors began to develop at schools. This is also depicted in military doctor Mori Ōgai’s novel **‘Vita Sexualis’** (1909) whose main character is, according to some, a semi-autobiographical representation of the author. By the way **‘Vita Sexualis’** immediately made scandal as, since it was accused of pornography had its sale forbidden. In reality, the text, which due to its lack of hypocrisy irritated censorship, is scrupulous, anxious for precision, even transparent and disconcerting for the supreme detachment and lack of pathos.

**25\. New publications about abnormal psychology:** Nakamura Kokyō (中村古峡)'s journal **‘Hentai shinri’** (變態心理 “Abnormal Psychology”) established in 1917 started the popular sexology boom in Japan which would see the rise of other popular journals like Sexuality and Human Nature, Sex Research and Sex. In those magazines homosexuality was also discussed but as a kind of deviance or perversion.

**26\. Weak emotions like love:** Marriage back then in Japan was usually organized by families and viewed as a working, familial or tribal relationship; a business-like social contract. It was not seen as something supposed to emotionally or sexually fulfil the individuals involved, but as an obligation and duty to secure a legacy by the only legitimate way to create lineage.  
Romantic love between a male and a female that weren’t married would often lead to Shinjū (心中 literally “mind-centre” but technically meaning “double suicide”) which were the simultaneous suicides of two lovers whose Ninjō (人情 “human emotion”, “personal feelings”, “compassion”), in short their love for one another were at odds with Giri (義理 “social conventions” or “familial obligations”).  
Bidō was viewed as a way to teach to the youths martial skills, warrior etiquette, and the samurai code of honour as well as also offer social backing and emotional support, while the desire to be a good role model would lead the older partner to behave more honourably himself so that the relationship would be mutually beneficial. They type of relationship wasn’t meant to happen between partners of the same age or between two adults and the relationship itself was meant to end when the younger partner would reach adulthood (both partners would be again free to search for new male lovers, although they could keep a strong homosocial relationship, meaning a same-sex relationship that is not of a romantic or sexual nature).  
In short romantic love wasn’t viewed as necessary in neither of the two relationships. Romantic love still happened, but in both types of relationship it was believed that the correct way to handle things was to carry on love in secret as, once love had been confessed, it would shrink in stature. This belief will persist for a long time.  
Ironically though, before the _‘oh so despised’_ folk people started to adopt the Samurai customs, it seems folk people valued romantic love. Long story short, a writer in 1930 will observe that in Japan _‘According to the traditional moral ideas, it is deemed a sign of mental and moral weakness to fall in love.’_ Mind you, don’t take all this as an **EVERYONE DID SO** type of note. This is just a quick glimpse of the mentality of that time and is focused mostly on the higher classes. Lower classes had an evolution different from the higher ones, even if in the end part of them adopted their customs.

**27\. To sum up Sakuma’s grandfather’s view:** In case it was missed in his long, long babbling, he was not a supporter of homosexuality as we view it now. He was a supporter of the old military pederast system used to educate youths who, once were to reach adult age would marry, procreate children and then educate other apprentices. Back then, among the Samurai, those who pursued relations exclusively with women or exclusively with youths were in a minority and were considered, at best, mildly eccentric for limiting their options… never mentioning than not continuing the family line by not producing offspring was viewed as wrong. Sorry to everyone who was hoping for something different.

**29\. The big German doctors:** We’re talking of no one else but **Sigmund Freud** , an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst and **Carl Gustav Jung** , a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Long story really, really short, according to Freud everyone was born what we now would call bisexual, by which he primarily meant that everyone incorporates aspects of both sexes, and that everyone is sexually attracted to both sexes. In his view, this was true anatomically and therefore also mentally and psychologically. Freud frequently called homosexuality an _‘inversion’_ , something which, in his view, was distinct from the necessarily pathological perversions and was ambivalent in how he viewed it, oscillating between embracing homosexual feelings and triumphing over them. Jung, sort of embraced Freud’s ideas but was less keen on the idea to embrace those _‘abominable feelings’_ , and referred to homoerotic feelings in terms of disgust, sentimentality, banality due to the profound anxiety that the possibility of intimacy with men aroused in him, though he blamed for this the fact he’d been sexually assaulted by a man when he was a boy. Miyoshi though for once is off of the mark as it seems Japanese beliefs over homosexuality weren’t inspired by them but by **Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing** , an Austro–German psychiatrist who was born in Mannheim, which is currently in Germany (but when this guy had birth Germany didn’t exist yet) and who was the author of the above mentioned foundational work **‘Psychopathia Sexualis’**. The guy is a bit drastic as, for him, procreation was the sole purpose of sexual desire and that **ANY FORM OF RECREATIONAL SEX** was a perversion of the sex drive… but well, not even Miyoshi can know everything as he wasn’t around when things started. His opinion is formed by the info that were available to him at the time and Freud’s popularity (as well as some of his ideas on martyrdom) caused Krafft-Ebing to end up being forgotten. Hence the confusion.

**30\. Why Sakuma is worried about the Military Police in regard to the Major’s lover business:** As said before criminalization of consensual anal intercourse between adult males wasn’t an issue anymore as the law condemning it had been abolished. What could still be viewed as a criminal offence and was illegal and punishable were _‘obscene acts’_ , which included only certain circumstances in which sodomy happened, for example when there was coercion or minors were involved. The matter was mostly left in the hand of public moral… until it was also declared as unpatriotic (sex should have been used to produce offspring and that was it).  
Now… despite all this it seems male homosexuality was reportedly common among Japanese troops… yes even during World War II… but, as you can guess, it was something that couldn’t exactly be talked openly because it was viewed as a pathologized form of perverse/abnormal sexuality, increasingly viewed as antithetical to the militarizing state's pro-natalist agenda and therefore unpatriotic, that it was adverse to discipline… and well, it seems that Japanese sexologists during that time claimed that homosexuals would degenerate into androgyny in that the very body would come to resemble that of a woman which was something that would clash with the idea of how a Japanese soldier should be. Now, as with many things, at first this sort of things were handled quietly, mostly stunning the career of who was suspected of being homosexual but as times went by the Military Police began to jump on everything that was perceived as unpatriotic. You might think being unpatriotic wouldn’t be that big of a deal but actually in Japan at that time if someone were to be reported for unpatriotic conduct or statements, he or she would be suspected as a spy and summoned by the military police or the special higher police for interrogation. If the suspect was convicted, he or she faced imprisonment or capital punishment, depending on the severity of the crime. As the Military Police’s _‘gentle’_ method of persuasion to get suspects to talk with time ended up being basically torture them until they either talked or died, really, you didn’t want to be on the Military Police’s bad side. That’s why Sakuma has no idea what could happen to the Major’s lover but he’s worried about what the Military Police could do to him or to who would be suspected to be him.  
Mind you, we’re in a period in which things are changing for worse. In 1939 the situation was worse than it was before but it wasn’t as bad as it will be in the future. That’s also why Sakuma isn’t sure what the Military Police will do as they’re jumping on what previously they would let slide.

**31\. Miyoshi’s common sense:** In the manga they added a scene in which Miyoshi explained to Sakuma that after having swum in the winter sea they were chatting among them as if nothing was wrong because they weren’t perceiving the cold due to how the body answered to excessive cold by feeling hot. He however also admitted they could freeze to death and then went on saying he was answering to the situation he was in by analyzing it and responding to it with sound judgement. The extra scene ends here but, long story short, I headcanon Sakuma thinking that Miyoshi’s behaviour wasn’t dictated by sound judgement but by lack of common sense. If he knew his body was feeling cold and that cold could kill him according to Sakuma he should have reacted by trying to warm himself up, not by stopping by to chat. There are other reasons for which he thinks Miyoshi is lacking common sense but in this case he’s thinking specifically at this circumstance… though in truth Sakuma perceives Miyoshi as lacking of common sense merely because Miyoshi (and the other D Agency members) do not fit with what was at the time the common behaviour. It’s more a clash in mentalities than a lack on Miyoshi’s part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So maybe some of you thought this chapter would never see birth. If that’s so well, don’t worry, I was starting to doubt I’ll manage to carry it on as well. As far as I’m involved this had been the chapter that had involved the most **HELLISH, COMPLICATE, CONFUSE** historical research for a chapter I’ve ever done, which made me think more than once I was a complete moron for deciding to put it in a fic.
> 
> The basis was that although Sakuma and Miyoshi both see nothing wrong into the Major having a male lover, they end up on assuming the other does which lead them to argue on something they actually agree about. This was meant to be the key point in which they really realize that each other prejudices blind them to the point they can’t even realize when they agree on something and start on interacting on a more open minded manner.
> 
> Miyoshi and Sakuma ended up on clashing because they basically, being products of different circumstances, have very different views. Sakuma is a soldier and, in my headcanon he is the heir from a family of soldiers, which in the past was fundamentally a minor branch of a Samurai family and carries within himself all their mind setting. On the other side Miyoshi is an illegitimate child from an aristocratic family, previously court nobles. He’d been raised into the family and allowed to study and travel through the world were Sakuma fundamentally knows only Japan and the Army mentality.
> 
> See? It seemed easy enough when I planned it. I wish it was.
> 
> The history of homosexuality in Japan as known by the most is sort of jumpy and focus only on some aspects and social classes as if that was all there was to it. Actually each social class dealt with it differently and, although Japan, with the end of the isolationism tried to embrace the western mentality, he fundamentally never did… but you can’t change people’s mentality overnight. To make matter worse things changed a lot from the end of isolationism to the end of WW2.
> 
> It was hell not only to find out which was the exact stance in 1939, when this fic takes place, but also through Sakuma and Miyoshi’s lives and different classes. And mind you, Japanese stance on the matter is not the western one.
> 
> As a result I was forced to add a lot of historical explanations. You might notice at the moment the picture is incomplete as, currently, you only had to deal with the historical exposition Sakuma’s granddad did and that covers a time that’s definitely prior to 1939 and then tiny glimpses about _‘present’_ time situation. Future chapters are meant to dig more in Miyoshi’s view and experiences and in Sakuma’s experiences.
> 
> There is however at this point something I really want to stress out.
> 
> **Don’t take this fic as a historical essay.**
> 
> Each character, starting from Sakuma’s granddad, bring in this his own, inaccurate vision on the matter. For example Sakuma’s granddad stresses up on the importance of the relationship being consensual… when actually many samurai took advantage of their authority on their apprentice to force a young Wakashū (a boy is a Wakashū from about 5–10 years of age to mid-teens through early 20s) into a relationship. He blames a lot folk people for the corruption of the old customs, but Samurai as well were to blame. Miyoshi thinks he knows on which psychiatrists’ theories is based the current stance about homosexuality… but he’s actually mistaken due to a lack correct info available. 
> 
> If you really want to study the situation of homosexuality in Japan do it by using better sources. History is always amazing to discover so you won’t waste your time.
> 
> Also it’ll be appreciated if you won’t feel the urge to kill me for whatever historical mistake I made. I swear I really researched for this a lot and I did my best to be accurate but it wasn’t exactly easy so I probably have messed up here and there…


End file.
